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Disarmament Decisions as Social Dilemmas 1
Author(s) -
Chibnall John T.,
Wiener Richard L.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.1988.tb01180.x
Subject(s) - disarmament , nuclear weapon , politics , attribution , dilemma , deterrence theory , psychology , nuclear energy policy , social psychology , production (economics) , political science , law , economics , nuclear power , ecology , philosophy , macroeconomics , epistemology , biology
The individual deciding on a nuclear weapons production policy is faced with a dilemma in which a choice must be made to support one of several conflicting defense policies. In order to investigate the social‐psychological variables that are related to armament policy decision making, a telephone survey was conducted in the City of St. Louis, Missouri. Adult subjects ( N = 110) responded to questions concerned with cognitive, attitudinal, and emotional responses to nuclear arms. Participants were also asked to choose a weapons production policy for the United States under conditions of continued and decreased Soviet nuclear arms production. Results indicated that respondents decisions about nuclear weapons production were related to their support for deterrence, the availability of their nuclear‐related images, their emotional response to nuclear war, their attributions of responsibility for the prevention of nuclear war, and their political party affiliation. Distinctions between antinuclear decision‐makers and pronuclear decision‐makers are discussed.