Childhood Personality and Trauma Can Influence Attitudes about War

Illustration of childhood trauma. (Freepik)

JAKARTA - A person's attitude towards major issues such as war is not solely shaped by political information or the global situation, but also by psychological constructs that develop early on.

Personality, parenting patterns, and childhood experiences can affect how individuals perceive threats, authority, and the use of force. In psychology, responses to conflict are often related to how a person understands security, stability, and power.

Quoting the Psychology Today website, a study involving more than 1,000 respondents in the UK found a relationship between individual character and the level of support for military conflict.

The study entitled "Authoritarianism and the Psychology of War: Exploring Personality Traits in the Legitimation of Military Conflict" analyzes various aspects of personality as well as the background of the respondents' life experiences to see what factors affect the legitimacy of war.

The results show that men tend to be more supportive of war than women. In addition, older respondents and those with a more right-leaning political orientation are also more likely to approve of the use of military force.

Researchers found that one of the most powerful psychological factors related to support for war is the tendency to authoritarian submission. This term refers to an attitude of obedience to authority and the belief that social order must be maintained through obedience to leaders and applicable rules.

Individuals with high levels of authoritarian submission tend to have a more assertive view of groups that are considered deviant from social norms.

In addition, another factor that plays a role is social dominance orientation or social dominance orientation. This concept describes a preference for a hierarchical social system and inequality between groups. Respondents with a high level of social dominance orientation are more likely to support the use of military conflict as a way to maintain a country's position or supremacy.

The study also highlights the importance of childhood experiences. Individuals who have experienced abuse as children, both in the form of physical and emotional violence, have been noted to have a greater tendency to support military action as adults.

Researchers assess that negative experiences in the early phase of life can shape perceptions of aggression and threat, as well as influence views on the legitimacy of the use of force.

These findings show that attitudes for or against war are not only influenced by strategic considerations and political interests, but also by psychological dynamics that develop from childhood. Understanding these factors is considered to help explain why public opinion on armed conflict can be very diverse within a society.