Sociopolitical and Personality Correlates of Militarism in Democratic Societies

This article synthesizes research on the sociopolitical and personality constructs that most frequently correlated with militarism in the published social science research literature between 1931 and 2007. The reviewed research includes diverse definitions and assessment measures for each highlighted construct featured in studies conducted with various types of participants in several different democratic societies. The principal sociopolitical correlates of militarism included conservatism, nationalism, religiosity, patriotism-blind patriotism, and internationalism-worldmindedness. The major personality correlates of militarism were authoritarianism, dominance-power, ethnocentrism, masculinity, and punitiveness. All of these variables, except internationalism-worldmindedness, positively correlated with militarism. Meta-analysis reveals that the correlations between militarism and each set of comparison variables typically yielded an average effect size in the small to medium range.