WIN International, the world’s leading association in market research and polling has published a recent survey exploring the views and beliefs of 19,422 individuals among citizens from 24 countries across the globe about war and attitudes towards it.
Self-perception and connection to the country
Although the majority (63%) feels connected to their country, 20% shares neutral feelings and 14% would rather live in another country / wants to leave their country as soon as possible. This negative feeling increases among students (22%) and unemployed (19%).
Probably related to the willingness to live elsewhere the results about people’s current mood. When asked about it, 30% of the total sample rate their current mood with a negative score.
However, a positive mood among people does not always mean a full gratification of the country where they live: Finland, Colombia and Canada are the countries with the highest number of citizens with a positive mood, but only the first and the third one also rank high in having people considering their country the best place to live in. An interesting case is Pakistan: although it is one of the three countries showing the lowest mood, it leads the ranking of countries with more people happy to live in it.
Willingness to fight for one’s own country
Connection to ones’ own country does not seem to be enough to fight for it. If there were a war that involved their country, only 45% would be willing to fight for it. Europe shows the highest percentage of people that won´t fight for their country, 38% compared to the 33% that will fight. Pakistan, consistent to its citizens’ deep connection to it, presents the highest percentage (96%) of people willing to defend their country in case of war. Italy (22%), Germany (22%), Japan (19%) and Netherlands (16%) are the countries where less people are willing to get involved in a war.
War between Russia and Ukraine
Almost two thirds of the population (64%) in the 24 countries surveyed consider that Russia is responsible for the military hostilities/war in Ukraine. This perception varies among regions: while the majority in Europe (75%), the Americas (65%), APAC (63%) and Africa (56%) blame Russia, in MENA region opinions are more distributed, with 30% considering Russia and 26% USA the responsible of the war. On the other hand, only Ukraine is perceived as the one doing enough to help stopping the war. Indeed, respondents believe Russia, NATO, China, USA and European countries are not doing all they can to end the conflict (67%, 55%, 46%, 45% and 42% respectively). Overall, 35% think that the war will come to an end during this year.
Confidence and the future
The future looks uncertain for 55% of interviewees who feel insecure about their own. Lebanon (78%), Italy (68%) and France (67%) are the countries with the highest percentage of citizens feeling insecure.
However, large shares of the population seem to be confident about different aspects: for example, results show some confidence in the quality of information people find about the Russian-Ukraine hostilities/war in the media in their country (44%), the economic situation of their household in the coming months (44%), the quality of information people receive about the Russian-Ukraine hostilities/war from public authorities in their country (40%) and the economic situation in their country (29%).
Vilma Scarpino, President of WIN International Association, said:
Results of the survey we conducted bring the opinions about real-time events like war, to broader societal, economical and political considerations. The war between Russia and Ukraine, just like other wars in different parts of the world, shakes people’s confidence about the future and weakens perspectives: indeed, only a few believe this conflict will know an end before 2023. However, instead of turning skeptical about different aspects of their life, many keep focusing on the positive ones: large shares of the population trust the media and the authorities when it comes to quality of information, and many others do not loose hopes about the economic situation, both of their households and of their country, even though there are differences between countries.
Moreover, the majority of the population scores positive on a mood scale and are happy to live in their own countries. Of course, people who feel less connected to the place they live in are also the most unhappy ones. Interestingly, (and that’s where culture kicks in the most), deeper connections to your country do not always mean higher willingness to fight for it. On one hand, many consider war as the ultimate way to defend their places (whether you want to, or need to), but many others just see it as an extreme and absolutely avoidable situation they’re not willing to live.