How do soldiers maintain their will to fight? An introduction to Combat Motivation (1982)

Soldiers who have undergone basic training in the military first learn how to move mechanically according to drill. Through this training, soldiers acquire the discipline to act as a unit rather than as individuals, but this does not mean they can remain calm and composed when faced with an armed enemy.

It is a natural reaction to feel fear when a gun is pointed at you and to become confused in a situation where comrades are dying one after another. That is precisely why it is essential for each individual soldier to approach the situation with a strong will in order to fight the enemy.

The work of researcher Anthony Kellett, "Combat Motivation: The Behaviour of Soldiers in Battle" (1982) is a research achievement that analyzes how soldiers form the will to fight using psychological theory, and it provides meaningful insights for considering the factors necessary for units to maintain morale on the battlefield.

Kellett, A. (2013). Combat motivation: The behaviour of soldiers in battle. Springer Science & Business Media.

In social psychology, soldier morale can be understood using the term motivation. Motivation is the process of shaping and sustaining behavior toward a specific direction, which can be reinforced by individual desires or by influences from the external environment.

Previous researchers have attempted to summarize the motivation that keeps soldiers fighting on the front lines into a small number of factors, such as cohesion, ideology, and leadership, but the author criticizes such simplified theories as misleading. The author states that the reasons that actually drive soldiers to fight are diverse, and that at least four categories are necessary: personal factors, organizational factors, social factors, and situational factors.

In this article, I will not provide an exhaustive explanation of the factors included in each category, but as a particularly interesting discussion, I will introduce an analysis that reveals that soldiers' combat motivation is reconstructed before and after combat begins. In the stage before combat begins, soldiers do not feel that they are in physical danger, so ideological concepts that explain the cause of the war tend to easily shape combat motivation.

However, once combat has begun, soldiers recognize a situation where they feel the fear of death strongly, so their motivation shifts immediately thereafter. This leads to a mental state where the previously dormant desire for self-preservation acts strongly, and this replaces the major motivation that shapes combat behavior. This interaction between situation and motivation is a dynamic process that changes moment by moment in conjunction with the situation. While a sense of unity with one's unit and the leadership of commanders are also considered to have an important influence on soldiers' combat behavior, the author argues that these are of a nature that changes depending on how soldiers perceive the situation, and that they do not always produce a constant effect.

One might generally think that when soldiers increase their desire for self-preservation, their morale is broken and they become more likely to flee the battlefield, but the author does not necessarily think so. Rather, soldiers may muster their courage to fight in order to survive. Many soldiers are well aware that if they turn their backs on the enemy unit and flee in disarray, they can no longer counter with organized unit action, which actually increases the danger of death. If they are in a situation where they can utilize enough comrades, weapons, and tactics to continue fighting, soldiers will likely try to continue fighting while coming to terms with the danger by following their desire for self-preservation.

According to the author's view, the role played by the desire for self-preservation in combat motivation is stronger than usually assumed, and commanders must incorporate its influence when operating units. The author points out that it is important for each individual soldier to have the confidence that they can deal with unforeseen situations in order to demonstrate superior ability during combat. Since confidence is derived from experience, providing thorough training in advance and giving them sufficient equipment and manpower will contribute to the maintenance of morale.

As it is a 1982 document, it relies on surveys accumulated from World War II through the Vietnam War, and it does not reflect the latest research situation. However, as it was reprinted in 2013, it is a military psychology document that still finds readers, and I believe it continues to be a useful book for thinking about battlefield psychology.

Header image: U.S. Department of Defense

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