When the World Falls Apart: How People Make Decisions in the Times of War

Abstract

A sample of 1,247 adults from two Ukrainian cities was analyzed to understand how exposure to the Donbas war in 2017 influenced decision-making related to violent behaviors among civilians. The study seeks to: (a) evaluate perceived rewards and costs as mediators between war exposure and violence; (b) test if war exposure increases the effect of perceived rewards and decreases the influence of perceived costs of crime on violence; (c) assess war exposure’s impact on the interaction between perceived rewards/costs of violence and decision-making moderators. As findings show, high war exposure diminishes the relevance of perceived benefits and alters their interrelationships with other factors in violent decisions. Overall, results suggest a shift toward “hot” reasoning during war.