Loyalty to Putin Drives Russian Support for War in Ukraine, Study Finds

The study revealed that about half of Russia’s adult population supports the war, though “this war support does not reflect other potential motivations, such as wanting to dominate Ukraine or Ukrainians, or reacting with aggression to a perceived Ukrainian threat,” according to university press materials.

The findings, published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, revealed that ‘right-wing authoritarianism’—a set of attitudes characterized by a high degree of submissiveness to authority figures—was a key determinant of support.

This “submission to established authorities, with the most clear authority in Russia being Vladimir Putin, has the most explanatory power” for support for the war, the report said.

Another personality metric examined by the researchers—‘social dominance orientation,’ or a preference for social hierarchies and domination over lower-status groups—was found to be a less influential factor.The research team’s leader, Dr. Robin Wollast of the University of Kent’s Psychology and Public Policy Research Unit, said: “While we understood that many Russians supported the Ukraine invasion, the reasons behind this were not completely clear. Several factors also contribute to war support, such as Russian identification, nationalism, group efficacy, war-related misperceptions, and collective narcissism. Misinformation was also an important predictor of support for the war, including theoretical ideas like 'The Ukrainian government is controlled by Nazis.'”Dr. Wollast described the role of misinformation as interesting and said it was something his team intended to examine further.

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