Is the Past in the Past? The Impact of Historical Events on Defence Attitudes

• In Event: The Legacies of War on Political Identities and Behavior

Abstract

Collective memories are memories shared by a group or collective and can include recent events as well as historical events dating back generations. Importantly, collective memories are shared interpretations of the past and often are not factually accurate accounts of history (Wertsch & Roediger, 2008). These different interpretations of the past are assumed to lead groups to have drastically different worldviews, but how and why certain memories impact behavior remains somewhat unclear (Hirst and Manier 2008; Kansteiner 2002; Olick, Vinitzky-Seroussi, and Levy 2011). The critical years hypothesis assumes that events that occur in an individual’s childhood to early adulthood will be particularly important in shaping an individual’s worldview (Corning and Schuman 2015). This study will examine the impact of historical event memory cues on individuals’ defence attitudes in Canada. It will also test whether events that occur within an individual’s critical period have a particularly strong impact on behavior. To do this, this study will first identify the historical events that are significant for Canadians by surveying a large representative sample of Canadians (approx. 2,500) to name one or two events that occurred between 1946-2023 that they view as particularly important. Based on these results, we will use a survey experiment (approx. 2,000 Canadian adults) to test the impact of four historical event memory cues, brief descriptions of a historical event, on individuals’ defence attitudes, including threat perception, defence spending, military operation preferences, and values such as militarism, isolationism, and internationalism. The effect of an individual’s age at the time of the historical events on the treatment effect will be examined to test the critical years hypothesis. The study will conclude with a discussion of how these results can contribute to strategic culture, public opinion, and generational research.

Author

• Alexandra Jane Richards, Simon Fraser University