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59 J. Conflict Resol. 3 (2015)

handle is hein.journals/jcfltr59 and id is 1 raw text is: Article journal of Conflict Resolution 2015, Vol. 59(l) 3-28 @ The Author(s) 2013 Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav lternaties, and the DOI: 10. 1177/002200273498706 jcr.sagepub.com Social Psychology of OSAGE War Support Aaron M. Hoffman', Christopher R. Agnew2, Laura E. VanderDrift3 , and Robert Kulzick' Abstract Using experiments, we show that subjects who are asked about their support for war without being told about diplomatic strategies to deal with crises back military operations at levels consistent with people who are told that the alternatives to war are of low quality. In contrast, subjects who are told that diplomacy could work to resolve conflicts express less support for military operations. These results suggest that, in the absence of conflicting evidence, people premise their support for war on the assumption that leaders use force as a last resort. Implications for the study of success as an influence on public attitudes about US military operations are considered. Keywords war support, public opinion, success, experiments, social psychology Roughly three months before launching Operation Iraqi Freedom, US president George W. Bush held a meeting with Polish president Aleksander Kwasniewski. The Department of Political Science, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA 2 Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA Department of Psychology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA Corresponding Author: Aaron M. Hoffman, Department of Political Science, Purdue University, 100 N. University St., West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA. Email: ahoffman@purdue.edu