Military Loyalty as a Moral Emotion

Abstract

Loyalty between soldiers is idealized as an emotion that promotes cohesion and combat effectiveness. However, little empirical work has examined how military personnel understand, feel, and enact loyalty. We use a symbolic interactionalist informed frame to explore the lived experience of 24 retired Australian Defence Force members via in-depth semi-structured interviews. Our analysis revealed three core themes: (1) Loyalty as reciprocity, where there was an expectation that loyalty would be returned no matter what. (2) The importance of emotional connection for cohesion. (3) Loyalty as a prioritizing process, where a soldier’s loyalties gave them a way of choosing between competing demands. Loyalty is a moral emotion that enabled sensemaking. Close interpersonal loyalties tended to trump wider/diffused loyalties. Respondents understood their loyalties to fellow soldiers within wider social constructs of mateship and professionalism. The findings show the risks that come from a reliance on loyalty for combat cohesion.

Spiritual over physical formidability determines willingness to fight and sacrifice through loyalty in cross-cultural populations

“…We examine the proposition that self-perceived spiritual formidability provides the personal disposition to inspire concerted collective action through loyalty. Loyalty has been described and analyzed as a cognitive activity, a moral emotion, a guiding virtue (45), a contract between two people, and as a set of prosocial behaviors on behalf of the group (16). Under combat conditions, loyalty can be felt as intensely spiritual (13), driving a connection to teammates to become more familial than real kin (14,19).…”

“…Under combat conditions, loyalty can be felt as intensely spiritual (13), driving a connection to teammates to become more familial than real kin (14,19). Military groups tend to deliberately cultivate a special type of ingroup attachment that encourages loyalty between group members (16). This type of loyalty among combatants may provide sustained motivation to initiate and suffer violence.…”

“…Loyalty is multifaceted and characterized as intensely spiritual (13), familial (14), and functional (15). In conflict, loyalty refers to the allegiances developed and felt among teammates (16), ingroup superiors (17), and a primary group (18). The attachments established through loyalty toward others within a primary group have been found to be instrumental in decisions to commit violence against others, including civilians (16,(19)(20)(21).…”

“…In conflict, loyalty refers to the allegiances developed and felt among teammates (16), ingroup superiors (17), and a primary group (18). The attachments established through loyalty toward others within a primary group have been found to be instrumental in decisions to commit violence against others, including civilians (16,(19)(20)(21). In previous work, intergroup conflict is driven by the need to defend members of the ingroup (20,21).…”

A Moral Theory of Public Service Motivation

“…However, grouped-based altruism also implies that the needs of compatriots take precedence over the needs of outsiders. In the public sector, Loyalty is most emphasized in military, police and fire service to instill emotional commitment to public security service and stimulate courage to make self-sacrifice (Ewin, 1990;Connor et al, 2019). For instance, Braender and Andersen (2013) find that soldiers' PSM and commitment to public values increase after deployment in Afghanistan because soldiers mutually reinforce their shared sense of service duty and professional identity during deployment.…”