War expectancy and the evaluation of a specific war

Introduction Several writers have pointed to the impact on behavior of reality as it is conceived psychologically (Thomas and Znaniecki, 1918; Allport, 1950; Merton, 1957; Rosenthal, 1964). Though writing on a wide variety of topics, these men have developed the theme that expectations which people have operate as internal factors which influence evaluations, behavior, and the course of events. Most closely associated with the topic of this paper, Allport (1950) contended that the expectancies which men have in regard to war are critical factors in determining whether or not wars will occur. It also seemed quite reasonable to anticipate that a person's attitudes toward war in general would be related to his evaluation of a particular war. Along this line, Putney and Middleton (1962) found students believing war to be more likely were more accepting of war in general. The present research unit dealt with two attitudinal levels. The more abstract level concerned the inevitability of war and the commonly associated idea of the roots of war being in man's basic nature. The second