Отражение решения о специальной военной операции в массовом сознании

Институт психологии Российской академии наук. Социальная и экономическая психология. 2023. Т. 8. № 1. С. 89–112.

Дейнека О. С., Maksimenko A.

For a large-scale and risky political decision, the attitude of the citizens of the country towards it,
an understanding of the goals and objectives that stand behind it, trust in the decision and the persons who
are responsible for it are important. The purpose of the study was to assess the perceptions of Russians about
the main political goals of a special military operation (SVO), taking into account the demographic
characteristics and political attitudes of citizens against the background of the information war and the postpandemic.
646 people aged 19 to 70 took part in the study, carried out using the Questionnaire platform from
July 17 to July 21, 2022, of which 62.4% were men and 37.6% were women. The research tools included a
test of ideas about the main goals of a political decision on a special military operation (SMO); express
questionnaire of political optimism; modified semantic differential of the assessment of the political decision
on the SMO; to identify relations in the «citizen-state» system, the Citizen's Questionnaire was used
(Deyneka, 2015). The results of the study showed that Russians associate the main goals of making a
decision on SMO with the national security of their country. Respondents expressed political optimism about
the outcome of the SMO, its resource price, and confirmed their adherence to conservative views and
traditions. With the help of the semantic differential method, a generally positive image of the militarypolitical
decision on the SMO was obtained, its volitional and value characteristics dominate. A positive
assessment of the decision on the SMO is closely related to identification with the country and civic pride, as
well as the belief in the decency of Russian politicians. Citizens who are oriented toward the future with their
country, reject occupational connotations when formulating the goals of the SMO, do not agree with the lack
of objective reasons for its initiation, do not recognize the manipulative goal of distracting the country's
citizens from internal problems. A greater degree of support for the decision on SMO was expressed by older
people, more religious respondents and citizens with higher income levels.

Keywords: политические установки, модифицированный семантический дифференциал, political attitudes, Hybrid war, гибридная война, military-political decision, decision on SMO, assessment of goals, modified semantic differential, demographic factors, военно-политическое решение, решение об СВО, оценка целей, демографические факторы