Social worldviews and the likelihood of engaging in preemptive strikes

Abstract

The purpose of the present studies was to examine the connections that the dangerous and competitive social worldviews had with the likelihood of engaging in preemptive strikes. More specifically, the focus was on the possibility that the associations these social worldviews had with the likelihood to engage in preemptive strikes may be mediated by perceived threat and certain psychological states (e.g., fear). The results of three studies with large Israeli community samples revealed partial support for our hypotheses using preemptive strike dilemmas concerning a business partnership (Study 1; N = 1629), a romantic relationship (Study 2; N = 1481), and a home intruder (Study 3; N = 1502). As expected, the dangerous social worldview had a positive indirect association with the likelihood of engaging in preemptive strikes through perceived threat in each study. In contrast, the competitive social worldview had positive direct associations with the likelihood to engage in preemptive strikes in each study but the indirect association through perceived threat was less consistent. Discussion focuses on the implications of these results for understanding the roles that perceived threat may play in the connections between social worldviews and the likelihood of engaging in preemptive strikes.