Brothers in arms: Libyan revolutionaries bond like family
Open accessAbstract
What motivates ordinary civilians to sacrifice their lives for revolutionary causes? We surveyed 179 Libyan revolutionaries during the 2011 conflict in Libya. These civilians-turned-fighters rejected Gaddafi's jamahiriyya (state of the masses) and formed highly cohesive fighting units typical of intense conflicts. Fighters reported high levels of "identity fusion"--visceral, family-like bonds between fighters and their battalions. Fusion of revolutionaries with their local battalions and their own families were extremely high, especially relative to Libyans who favored the revolution but did not join battalions. Additionally, frontline combatants were as strongly bonded to their battalion as they were to their own families, but battalion members who provided logistical support were more fused with their families than battalions. Together, these findings help illuminate the social bonds that seem to motivate combatants to risk their lives for the group during wartime.
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- Authors
- Whitehouse, H., McQuinn, B., Buhrmester, M., & Swann, W. B.
- Affiliations
- University of Oxford (GB)
- The University of Texas at Austin (US)
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2014-11-10
- Volume
- 111
- Issue
- 50
- Pages
- 17783-17785
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC4273349
- OpenAlex
- W1993821023
- Cited by
- 324
- References
- 15
- Citations by year
- 2026: 14 · 2025: 35 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 41 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 58 · 2019: 36 · 2018: 27 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 16 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 2
- FWCI
- 49.80
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (REF RES-060-25-0085, 1124382)
- John Templeton Foundation (37624)
- University of Oxford
- Economic and Social Research Council (ES/I005455/1, RES‐060‐25‐0085, REFRES-060-25-0085)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Political Conflict and Governance
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence
- Keywords
- identity fusion, 2011 Libyan revolution, group cohesion, family ties, Gaddafi regime
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Conflict, Psychological, Cooperative Behavior, Humans, Interviews as Topic, Libya, Male, Military Personnel, Object Attachment, Social Identification
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