Studies in Social Psychology in World War II
"Studies in Social Psychology in World War II" examines the psychological factors that influenced the morale and commitment of American soldiers during the war. Commissioned by General George C. Marshall, the research led by Samuel A. Stouffer utilized questionnaires and interviews to analyze how various factors—such as race, education, age, military assignment, and combat exposure—affected soldiers' sentiments. Notably, the studies highlighted the significance of personal loyalty within military units over abstract ideologies, revealing that soldiers were more motivated by the desire not to disappoint their comrades. The research also uncovered disparities in satisfaction among different branches of service, emphasizing how status perceptions impacted morale. Furthermore, findings regarding the performance of integrated black units during combat contributed to significant policy changes, including the eventual desegregation of the military in 1948. Overall, these studies not only informed military policy during the war but also spurred further inquiry into group dynamics and conformity in social psychology.
Studies in Social Psychology in World War II
Identification Compilation and summary of a program of studies commissioned to explore the adjustment of citizen-soldiers to military life and to combat
Creator U.S. War Department
Dates Studies initiated and reported from 1941 to 1945; research summarized in four volumes in 1949
The research program summarized in Studies in Social Psychology in World War II has remained the most comprehensive exploration ever undertaken of factors influencing the morale of a wartime army. Its conclusions both altered American military policy and made enduring contributions to the psychology of group dynamics.
Aware of the importance of an army’s morale in the success of military missions, General George C. Marshall commissioned Samuel A. Stouffer and his associates to study factors influencing the commitment of American soldiers in World War II. Using written questionnaires, intensive interviews, and such behavioral outcomes as the numbers of promotions and soldiers absent without leave (AWOL), Stouffer and his associates studied how morale varied with the individual soldier’s background (such factors as race, education, and age), branch of the service, military assignment, length of time in the armed services, and the duration of exposure to combat. As a result of these studies, the military learned a great deal about what motivated commitment in its citizen army.
Matters of status were important with the choosy U.S. Army Air Forces, accorded a high status among military personnel, as contrasted with the infantry, often perceived as being of lower status. The researchers found that soldiers evaluated the rewards and deprivations of military life not objectively but in comparison to salient others, their “reference group.” Air Force personnel, for example, were dissatisfied with their rates of promotion, which objectively were very high, because they compared themselves with other air corpsmen. In contrast, members of the military police (MPs) were satisfied with their objectively lower rate of promotion because other MPs served as their “reference group.”
The researchers found that hatred of the enemy and a belief in such abstract ideals as “fighting for democracy” were relatively unimportant in sustaining military commitment, but that personal loyalty to the soldier’s immediate unit had great power to sustain commitment through the rigors of battle. Above all else, soldiers did not want to “let their buddies down.” The research also showed that many black servicemen were quite dissatisfied with the army’s policy of segregating them into all-black units assigned subordinate, noncombat roles. When black platoons were needed to fight alongside white platoons in the crucial Battle of the Bulge, this coordinated action reportedly occurred without friction, and black soldiers were given high marks for their combat skills.
Impact
When the findings of the social psychology study were reported to the military command, they had a direct influence in altering military policy. Efforts were made to raise the status of the important infantry by introducing merit awards such as sharpshooter badges. Soldiers who had endured prolonged close combat in Europe and who therefore felt “relatively deprived” were awarded extra points toward speedy discharge at the end of the war.
Some conclusions of this research led to more enduring changes in military policy. The reported success of the black servicemen integrated into combat roles was an important consideration in President Harry S. Truman’s 1948 order to racially desegregate the military. Military training manuals gave new emphasis to the building of small and more cohesive military units. The demonstrated power of conformity pressures in small, cohesive groups inspired a new generation of research in social psychology that documented such pressures in other groups.
Bibliography
Jones, Lyle V. “Some Lasting Consequences of U.S. Psychology Programs in World Wars.” Multivariate Behavioral Research 42 (2007): 593-608.
Social Science Research Council, ed. Studies of Social Psychology in World War II. 4 vols. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1949.
Williams, Robin. “The American Soldier: An Assessment Several Wars Later.” Public Opinion Quarterly 53 (1989): 155-174.