The Memory of World War II: a Driver of War Attitudes and Collective Defense Readiness 80 Years On?

Fierens, Loïc
(2026) European Association of Social Psychology (EASP) 2026 General Meeting - preconference “social psychological processes of collective memory” — Location: Strasbourg (30.June.2026)

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(en) This presentation discusses early findings of an ongoing preregistered study looking at the effect of the memory of World War II (WWII) on war attitudes and collective defense readiness. It was given during the preconference "Social Psychological Processes of Collective Memory" of the EASP 2026 Meeting in Strasbourg. Data was collected through an online survey among 24 different European countries. The sample consisted out of university students (N = 4040), mostly female (80%) studying psychology. We operationnalized the planned behavior theory (Azjen, 1988) to study the potential pathways through which WWII memory could affect behavioral intentions (attitudes, norms, perceived control). Collective memory tasks were consisting out of 10 items measuring the perception of social roles (e.g., hero, victim, villain) fitness with the participant family and country behavior during the war. Collective defence readiness was measured with a 4 items validated scale (Fierens et al., in prep). Using multilevel regression analyses, we were able to show that recognizing one's family as hero of the war favored higher levels of collective defence readiness (i.e., "vicarious path"), whereas being located in a country with higher level of victim or villain narratives led to reciprocally higher and lower level of defence readiness (i.e., collective charters and associated norms). General war attitudes were significantly but very weakly associated with memories of WWII. Results were discussed in light of available literature.
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Fierens, L. (2026, June 30). The Memory of World War II: a Driver of War Attitudes and Collective Defense Readiness 80 Years On? European Association of Social Psychology (EASP) 2026 General Meeting - preconference “social psychological processes of collective memory”, Strasbourg. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/278775