Emotions, economic expectations and risk attitudes among soldiers during a military operation

ABSTRACT

Using data from a field study conducted among soldiers during the 2014 Protective-Edge military operation (OPE) in the Gaza Strip, this article examines the effect of exposure to war on soldiers’ emotions, economic expectations, and willingness to take risks. The results suggest that combat soldiers who took part in OPE were more willing to take risks and more optimistic. The analytical results indicate that among combat soldiers, levels of negative emotions were negatively related to individual economic expectations, while being present in the staging area close to OPE significantly and positively affected the level of their economic expectations.

KEYWORDS:

• Emotions
• economic expectations
• risk attitudes
• soldiers
• military service
• military operation
• Israel
• operation protective edge

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Slovic et al., “The Affect Heuristic”; Andrade and Ariely, “The Enduring Effect”; Hogarth et al., “Emotion and Reason”; Savage, “Surviving the Storm”; Benzion et al., “Emotions and Economic Expectations”; and Lahav et al., “Emotions, Risk Perceptions.”

2. Benzion et al., “Emotions and Economic Expectations.”

3. Rosenboim et al., “Emotions, Risk Perceptions”; and Shahrabani et al., “Recalled Emotions.”

4. Johnson et al., “Framing, Probability Distortions.”

5. Barron and Erev, “Small Feedback-Based Decisions”; and Rosenboim et al., “Emotions, Risk Perceptions.”

6. Rosenboim et al., “Emotions, Risk Perceptions.”

7. Lerner and Keltner, “Beyond Valence.”

8. Slovic and Peters, “Risk Perception”; Västfjäll et al., “The Affect Heuristic”; Benzion et al., “Emotions and Perceived Risks”; Lerner et al., “Emotion and Perceived Risks”; Shahrabani et al., “Recalled Emotions”; and Shavit et al., “The Effect of Fire.”

9. Shavit et al., “The Effect of Fire.”

10. Shahrabani et al., “Does Moving from War.”

11. Garyn-Tal and Shahrabani, “Relations between Type.”

12. Brænder, “Adrenalin Junkies”; Killgore et al., “Post-Combat Invincibility”; Wilk et al., “Relationship of Combat Experiences”; Thomsen et al., “Effects of Combat Deployment”; and Kelley et al., “Risk Propensity and Health.”

13. Garyn-Tal and Shahrabani, “Type of Army Service.”

14. Lerner et al., “Emotion and Perceived Risks”; and Shahrabani et al., “Does Moving from War.”

15. See note 2 above.

16. Kelley et al., “Risk Propensity and Health.”

17. Killgore et al., “Post-Combat Invincibility.”

18. See note 13 above.

19. See note 2 above.

20. Killgore et al., “Assessing Risk Propensity”; and Killgore et al., “Post-Combat Invincibility.”

21. Dohmen et al., “Individual Risk Attitudes.”

22. Ibid., 524.

23. Watson et al., “Development and Validation.”

24. See note 2 above.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sharon Garyn-Tal

Sharon Garyn-Tal is Lecturer at the Department of Economics and Management, The Max Stern Yezreel Valley College.

Shosh Shahrabani

Shosh Shahrabani is Head of Research Authority, The Max Stern Yezreel Valley College.