Brothers in arms: Libyan revolutionaries bond like family.
What motivates ordinary civilians to sacrifice their lives for revolutionary causes? We surveyed 179 Libyan revolutionaries during the 2011 conflict in Libya. These civilians-turned-fighters rejected Gaddafi's jamahiriyya (state of the masses) and formed highly cohesive fighting units typical of intense conflicts. Fighters reported high levels of "identity fusion"--visceral, family-like bonds between fighters and their battalions. Fusion of revolutionaries with their local battalions and their own families were extremely high, especially relative to Libyans who favored the revolution but did not join battalions. Additionally, frontline combatants were as strongly bonded to their battalion as they were to their own families, but battalion members who provided logistical support were more fused with their families than battalions. Together, these findings help illuminate the social bonds that seem to motivate combatants to risk their lives for the group during wartime.
Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom OX2 6PN; and harvey.whitehouse@anthro.ox.ac.uk.
Harvey
H
Whitehouse
Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom OX2 6PN; and.
Brian
B
McQuinn
Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom OX2 6PN; and.
Michael
M
Buhrmester
Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712.
William B
WB
Swann
D000328:Adult; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008002:Libya; D008297:Male; D008889:Military Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D009769:Object Attachment; D012933:Social Identification
group identity; identity fusion; intergroup conflict; revolutionary war; self-sacrifice