Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1992, 7 5 , 914.
O Perceptual and Motor Skills 1992
AROUSING PATRIOTIC FEELINGS IN M E N AND WOMEN ' DAVID LESTER, ROBERT B. HUDSON, AND JEAN COSTIC Richard Stockton State Colkge Summary.-In a sample of college students, 31 men responded more patriotically on a questionnaire after viewing violent scenes of war whde 56 women responded after viewing nonviolent scenes of soldiers. more
When governments wage war nowadays, they display great concern with the images shown on television to their citizens (Taylor, 1990), but different segments of the population may perceive and respond differently to these images. To explore sex differences in the reactions of people to images of war, two sets of 23 slides were prepared, one set (nonviolent) was of images such as young men attending U S 0 functions, flags and parades, and women kissing soldiers, while a second set (violent) included graphic war scenes such as mutilated bodies and destroyed cities. Students in four social science classes (56 women and 31 men of ages 18 to 25 years; Mag=:20.1 yr., SD: 1.7 yr.) were randomly assigned to two groups, shown one of the two sets of slides, and asked to complete an inventory of 15 items about war. A factor analysis of responses to these items, using SPSS' with a principal components extraction and a varimax rotation, yielded five factors, one of which tapped patriotism with loadings from "People should support their soldiers regardless of their opinion of the war" and "Military action boosts a country's pride." This was the only one of the five factors to give a significant interaction for sex by group (F,,,, = 9.18, p = 0.003). Women obtained higher scores after watching the nonviolent slides (M: 0.38, SD:0.64) than after watching the violent slides (M: -0.40, SD: 1.09) while men obtained higher scores after watching the violent slides (M: 0.24, SD: 1.16) than after watching the nonviolent slides (M: -0.29, SD:0.89). (Factor scores for the total sample had a mean of zero and a standard deviation of 1.0.) I n this sample the women obtained higher patriotic scores after watching the nonviolent slides of soldiers while men obtained higher patriotic scores after watching the scenes depicting the death and destruction of war. REFERENCE
TAYLOR, P. M. (1990) Munitions o/ the mind: war propaganda from the ancient world to the nuclear age. Wellingborough, U K : Patrick Stephens.
Accepted September 22, 1992.
'Address enquiries to D. Lester, Ph.D., Psychology Program, Richard Stockton State College, Pomona, NJ 08240.
O Perceptual and Motor Skills 1992
AROUSING PATRIOTIC FEELINGS IN M E N AND WOMEN ' DAVID LESTER, ROBERT B. HUDSON, AND JEAN COSTIC Richard Stockton State Colkge Summary.-In a sample of college students, 31 men responded more patriotically on a questionnaire after viewing violent scenes of war whde 56 women responded after viewing nonviolent scenes of soldiers. more
When governments wage war nowadays, they display great concern with the images shown on television to their citizens (Taylor, 1990), but different segments of the population may perceive and respond differently to these images. To explore sex differences in the reactions of people to images of war, two sets of 23 slides were prepared, one set (nonviolent) was of images such as young men attending U S 0 functions, flags and parades, and women kissing soldiers, while a second set (violent) included graphic war scenes such as mutilated bodies and destroyed cities. Students in four social science classes (56 women and 31 men of ages 18 to 25 years; Mag=:20.1 yr., SD: 1.7 yr.) were randomly assigned to two groups, shown one of the two sets of slides, and asked to complete an inventory of 15 items about war. A factor analysis of responses to these items, using SPSS' with a principal components extraction and a varimax rotation, yielded five factors, one of which tapped patriotism with loadings from "People should support their soldiers regardless of their opinion of the war" and "Military action boosts a country's pride." This was the only one of the five factors to give a significant interaction for sex by group (F,,,, = 9.18, p = 0.003). Women obtained higher scores after watching the nonviolent slides (M: 0.38, SD:0.64) than after watching the violent slides (M: -0.40, SD: 1.09) while men obtained higher scores after watching the violent slides (M: 0.24, SD: 1.16) than after watching the nonviolent slides (M: -0.29, SD:0.89). (Factor scores for the total sample had a mean of zero and a standard deviation of 1.0.) I n this sample the women obtained higher patriotic scores after watching the nonviolent slides of soldiers while men obtained higher patriotic scores after watching the scenes depicting the death and destruction of war. REFERENCE
TAYLOR, P. M. (1990) Munitions o/ the mind: war propaganda from the ancient world to the nuclear age. Wellingborough, U K : Patrick Stephens.
Accepted September 22, 1992.
'Address enquiries to D. Lester, Ph.D., Psychology Program, Richard Stockton State College, Pomona, NJ 08240.
