Examining the effects of political information and intervention stages on public support for military interventions: A panel experiment

Abstract

This study examines the formation and continuity of public support for military interventions as a function of political information levels and intervention stages using a panel experiment. The results demonstrate that politically informed individuals express less support for a military intervention at the beginning of that intervention compared to uninformed ones. However, as the intervention proceeds and casualties are incurred, the support of politically uninformed people decreases at a higher rate than does the support of the politically informed. As such, politically informed individuals demonstrate more stable levels of support across intervention stages. In addition, success or failure of an intervention at a certain stage interacts with the level of political information. Most notably, a decrease in support is significantly more pronounced among politically uninformed individuals compared to informed ones under deteriorating intervention conditions. Nevertheless, as the duration of the intervention gets longer, the level of support drops even with improving prospects while the impact of political information disappears. I also find that policy-specific information has a greater effect on public support for military interventions compared to general political information.