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42 Armed Forces & Soc'y 3 (2016)

handle is hein.journals/amdfcsad42 and id is 1 raw text is: Article Armed Forces & Society 2016, Vol. 42(1) 3-25 © The Author(s) 2015 Adrenalin Junkies: Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav W hy Soldiers Return DOI: 10.1177/0095327X 15569296 afs.sagepub.com from War Wanting More @SAGE Morten Braender' Abstract This article calls for military sociologists to contribute to the study of excitement motivation. Bravery has always played a dominant role in depictions of soldiers in popular culture, and the importance of concepts similar to excitement has been recognized in disciplines adjacent to sociology for decades. Given the transgressive nature of combat, we would intuitively expect soldiers to have their need for thrilling experiences satisfied during deployment, and hence their level of excite- ment motivation to have decreased when they return from war. However, the opposite seems to be the case. Soldiers return wanting more, and we lack a theoretical explanation why this is the case. This article starts closing this gap by offering one possible reason. And, most importantly, it calls for other researchers to offer other explanations as well. The explanation suggested here is that just like real drug addicts build up a physiological tolerance to narcotics, soldiers can become adrenalin junkies because their tolerance toward excitement is pushed upward by being exposed to danger. This explanation is tested, and finds partial support, using panel data with soldiers from two Danish companies, serving in Helmand, Afghanistan in 201 I1. Keywords excitement, sensation seeking, combat exposure, panel data ' Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark Corresponding Author: Morten Bronder, Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, Bartholins AII6 7, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark. Email: mortenb@ps.au.dk