The Revenge Motive: Understanding Public Bellicosity and Closure in a Post-9/11 World

尽管一些人会认为，美国对阿富汗和伊拉克战争的支持是基于后9/11世界对安全需求的增加，但也有证据表明，公众对这些战争的支持更深地植根于报复和报复的需求。哪种解释解释了支持美国介入阿富汗和伊拉克的原因，具有重要的理论和实践意义。这项研究对关于奥萨马·本·拉登(Obl)之死对美国公民意味着什么的相互矛盾的假设进行了实证检验，特别关注他的死亡对美国继续介入中东的政策偏好的影响。Obl的死是一个分水岭时刻和机会，可以研究(A)人们如何应对恐怖袭击，(B)需要和实现复仇在美国人的公共政策偏好中所起的作用，以及(C)相对于安全、丧失能力和威慑等其他关切，复仇动机有多重要。这项研究的参与者是大约7000人的子样本，他们在2001年或2003年完成了调查，调查包括2001年9月11日世贸中心和五角大楼遭受恐怖袭击后复仇/复仇的愿望。虽然最初的调查已经过去了很长一段时间，但回到这些参与者那里有很多好处，包括不必依靠回顾9/11事件后人们的复仇情绪，以及能够更坚定地确定拟议的原因(例如，9/11事件后需要复仇和支持扩大反恐战争)先于拟议的影响(例如，在OBL死亡时有一种“完成使命”的感觉)。这项研究增加了对美国人如何应对恐怖主义威胁的有限了解，以及公众舆论和政策偏好对恐怖袭击的全面后果的了解。这一快速提案满足了国家科学基金的快速资助标准，即需要紧急支持，以及其他具有智力价值和更广泛影响的资助标准。NSF在内部审查了这项提案。

Although some would argue that American's support for the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars has been based on increased needs for security in a post-9/11 world, there is also evidence that public support for these wars has been more deeply rooted in needs for retribution and vengeance. Which explanation accounts for support for U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq has important theoretical and practical implications. This research empirically tests competing hypotheses about what Osama bin Laden's (OBL's) death means to U.S. citizens, with a particular focus on the implications of his death for people's policy preferences with respect to continued American military involvement in the Middle East. OBL's death is a watershed moment and opportunity to study (a) how people cope with terrorist attacks, (b) the role that needs for and achieving vengeance play in Americans' public policy preferences, and (c) how important vengeful motives are relative to other concerns such as security, incapacitation, and deterrence. The participants for this study are a subsample of approximately 7,000 individuals who completed surveys in either 2001 or 2003 that included measures of desires for revenge/vengeance for the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Although a great deal of time has passed since the initial surveys, the advantages of returning to these participants are numerous, including not having to rely on retrospective accounts of how vengeful people felt in the more immediate aftermath of 9/11, and the ability to more firmly establish that proposed causes (e.g., post-9/11 needs for vengeance and support for an expanded war against terrorism) preceded the proposed effects (e.g., a sense of "mission accomplished" at the death of OBL). This study adds to the still limited knowledge of how Americans respond to terrorist threats, and the full post-attack consequences of terrorist attacks for public opinion and policy preferences. This RAPID proposal fulfills the NSF RAPID funding criterion of the need for urgent support as well as the other funding criteria of intellectual merit and broader impacts. NSF reviewed this proposal internally.