War, what is it good for? New paper presents value construals as a novel dimension in war support and resistance

Russia’s war on Ukraine is the largest land war in Europe since World War II, so why has the reaction among Russian citizens been relatively muted? Several theories posit that propaganda can inhibit and promote support for war - unsurprising considering Russia spent $1.7 billion on state media in 2025 - yet research on the motivational role of values used in propaganda is limited. Using a sample of Russian citizens, Ponizovskiy and colleagues (including lab members Isabelle Weissflog and Lusine Grigoryan) sought to address this gap. They found that around a third of citizens viewed the war in Ukraine as enhancing conservation values (e.g. security, conformity, and tradition), which was associated with more positive attitudes towards the war and greater intention to support it; while the majority saw the war as undermining these and other values. Read the full paper here. 

Abstract

Public support and resistance in authoritarian contexts are often attributed to (in)effective-

ness of propaganda – yet whether the state interpretations of events are actually internalised

is rarely examined. We surveyed 973 Russian citizens in August 2022 to assess how they construed the war in Ukraine in terms of its consequences for their core values, such as security, benevolence, and achievement. We first show that individuals systematically vary in the meanings they assign to the war: consumption of state (vs. independent) media was associated with seeing it as more protective of conservation values – security, conformity, and tradition – and less beneficial for self-enhancement and stimulation values. Latent profile analysis identified two patterns of construals: one interpreting the war as preserving the social order (representing 31% of participants) and another as undermining it (representing 69% of participants). The former was associated with more positive attitudes towards the war and stronger intentions to take part in political action in support of the war, even after accounting for authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, and national identity. Our findings identify value-based construals as a novel psychological dimension that connects propaganda research with the motivational psychology of values. Because the sample was collected in a wartime repressive context, we also discuss the possibility of sampling and response biases.