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

尽管有些人会说，美国对阿富汗和伊拉克战争的支持是基于9/11后世界对安全的需求增加，但也有证据表明，公众对这两场战争的支持更深地植根于对报复和复仇的需求。哪一种解释解释了支持美国介入阿富汗和伊拉克具有重要的理论和实践意义。本研究对奥萨马·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，特别关注他的死对美国继续军事介入中东的政策偏好的影响。OBL之死是一个分水岭和机会，可以研究(a)人们如何应对恐怖袭击，(b)复仇的需要和实现在美国人的公共政策偏好中所起的作用，以及(c)复仇动机相对于安全、丧失行为能力和威慑等其他问题有多重要。这项研究的参与者是大约7000个人的子样本，他们在2001年或2003年完成了调查，其中包括对2001年9月11日世界贸易中心和五角大楼恐怖袭击的报复欲望的测量。虽然自最初的调查以来已经过去了很多时间，但回到这些参与者身上的好处是很多的，包括不必依赖于对人们在9/11事件发生后的即时报复感受的回顾性描述，以及能够更牢固地确定所提出的原因（例如，9/11事件后对复仇的需求和对扩大反恐战争的支持）在所提出的影响之前（例如，OBL死亡时的“任务完成”感）。这项研究增加了美国人如何应对恐怖主义威胁的知识，以及恐怖袭击对公众舆论和政策偏好的全面后果。该RAPID提案符合NSF快速资助标准，即需要紧急支持，以及其他智力价值和更广泛影响的资助标准。NSF内部审查了该提案。

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.