Who Supports U.S. Veterans and Who Exaggerates Their Support?

• DOI: 10.1177/0095327X16682786
• Published date: 01 January 2018
• Author: Alair MacLean,Meredith Kleykamp,Crosby Hipes
• Date: 01 January 2018
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Who Supports U.S.

Veterans and Who

Exaggerates Their

Support?

Meredith Kleykamp

1

, Crosby Hipes

2

and Alair MacLean

3

Abstract

Support for U.S. military personnel appears high, but does it extend to veterans after

service ends? This study evaluates public support for social engagement with vet-

erans and spending on recent military veterans’ health care and estimates the extent

of socially desirable reporting on these forms of support. It uses a list experiment to

identify the extent of socially desirable reporting on topics. Findings demonstrate

that the public offers overwhelming support for spending on veterans’ health care

and social engagement with the group, but they somewhat overstate this support.

Support differs by age, race, and political ideology, and social desirability bias varies

by race, political ideology, and prior military experience. African Americans express

the lowest levels of support for returning veterans and the greatest extent of socially

desirable reporting on that support. This is despite generally high rates of service and

greater labor market returns to that service among this demographic group.

Keywords

attitudes, military service, social desirability bias, list experiment, veterans

1

University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

2

West Virginia Wesleyan University, Buckhannon, WV, USA

3

Washington State University Vancouver, Vancouver, WA, USA

Corresponding Author:

Meredith Kleykamp, University of Maryland, 2112 Parren Mitchell Art-Sociology Building (Bldg 146), 3834

Campus Dr., College Park, MD 20742, USA.

Email: kleykamp@umd.edu

Armed Forces & Society

2018, Vol. 44(1) 92-115

ªThe Author(s) 2017

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DOI: 10.1177/0095327X16682786

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Since the Vietnam War, Americans have been encouraged to distinguish the war

from the warrior who must fight it. We seem to have heeded the call. The public has

shown relatively low levels of support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (with

levels varying by war and over time), but Americans’ trust in the military as an

institution remains high. Although half of respondents said neither the wars in Iraq

nor Afghanistan were worth the cost (Pew Research Center, 2011), 91%of the public

surveyed expressed pride in U.S. soldiers, and 76%said they had personally thanked

someone in the military. The military stands as the most trusted institution in the

United States, with approximately 70%or more of the public expressing a ‘‘great

deal of confidence’’ in the armed forces since 2001 (Gallup, 2011, 2016; Pew

Research Center, 2011). Support has certainly varied over time, growing from

hovering in the 50–60%range in the 1970s to the 70–80%range since 2002 (Gallup,

2016). Today, support for the milita ry and those who serve appears high. It is,

however, unclear whether this public support extends beyond those currently serving

in uniform, to veterans after their military service ends. The societal injunction to

‘‘support the troops’’ who are actively involved in national defense may not translate

to tangible support for veterans after they complete their service, when they make

demands on the state and public to provide for their service-connected needs. Thus,

one goal of this study is to understand how the public views military veterans and

whether these attitudes vary across demographic subgroups.

Only 1.5%of the adult population has served in the military since 2001 and less

than 1%have deployed in support of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (Pew

Research Center, 2011). Those who serve disproportionately come from military

families in which parents or siblings have also served (Stander & Merrill, 2000).

These demographic facts are often used to establish a ‘‘civil–military gap’’or divide

with many hypothesized consequences. One possibility, posited by some scholars,

suggests the demographic civil–military divide has generated an environment, in

which civilians show deference to the military by ‘‘supporting the troops,’’ and by

extension, to respect and take care of veterans. Since the Vietnam Era, both oppo-

nents and supporters of military conflicts have used the ‘‘support the troops’’rhetoric

in positions regarding U.S. involvement in conflicts (Beamish, Molotch, & Flacks,

1995; Leitz, 2011; Woehrle, Coy, & Maney, 2008). Mazur (2010) argues that ‘‘the

most effective conversation stopper ever invented in contemporary American dia-

logue is the charge that someone doesn’t respect the military or those who serve in

the military’’ (p. 3). Public expressions of thanking troops for their se rvice can

regularly be seen in airports, sporting events, and political events around the country

(Samet, 2011). Given the cultural pervasiveness of these public expressions of

support and thanks for soldiers and veterans, we posit that members of the public

may be influenced to ‘‘support the troops’’ and veterans or at least appear to do so.

The pressure to publicly express support for military-connected populations may

influence individuals to respond to even private questions about military populations

and veterans in socially desirable ways by overstating their support and respect for

them. Because research has not previously investigated whether military service or

Kleykamp et al. 93