Why Men Fight and Fear

Lower animals fight from a variety of causes.. Some fight because, as beasts of prey, they live by killing and devouring. Animals may fight their own kind in a tussle over a mate or some choice morsel of food. They fight to defend their young, their homes, or their own lives. Some are aggressive and go about seeking what they may devour; others fight as a last resort when they are cornered.

Men, being two-legged animals, may fight for any or all of these reasons. But because they have minds capable of being moved by abstract ideas such as honor, glory, freedom, sympathy, justice and patriotism, men fight also for what they believe to be the right.

Thus, in an article entitled Psychology for the Fighting Man, the January Infantry Journal introduces a series of chapters on the psychology of war, a subject the peace-loving U.S. has long neglected. The articles are prepared by a committee of the Government's National Research Council headed by Dr. Edwin G. Boring, professor of psychology at Harvard.

Why Men Enlist. The psychologists believe that reasons for man's enlisting his whole effort may be separated from the reasons he fights. Twelve reasons are offered for enlisting. Among them: mass suggestion, adventure, personal glory, natural combativeness, maintenance of selfesteem, "feeling of oneness with the nation and faith in the nation's leaders," faith in democracy, spirit of sacrifice.

Once he is up against the enemy, a man fights for three chief reasons: 1) loyalty to his comrades and his unit (the highest type, long exemplified in the Marines, where organization consciousness is highly developed), 2) because he is led out of confusion and "will follow a stranger to attack a machine-gun nest if . . . officers are gone, if the stranger speaks and acts with assurance," 3) because there is literally nothing else to do.

"In general, it is the deeper motives that can best carry a man through the hardships and emotional tests of war. For this reason it is important for officers and enlisted men alike to understand the war aims of the nation and become convinced that these aims are in harmony with their own ideals."

How Men Meet Defeat. "When a man is faced with a very difficult problem or a series of them . . . when things become too difficult, there are just three sorts of things he can do." The three: work at it harder, from new angles; get mad and attempt to destroy the obstacle, or himself, or something else; give up in despair and sit in apathy or run away.

The first way is the healthy way. The second usually implies a goal that can never be reached: "the shipwrecked man who has tried vainly to signal for help and finally reverts to calling his mother's name over & over until he is exhausted is an example of how thinking breaks down under the strain of failure."

"Giving up may mean defeat, but it does not always mean surrender. In most situations what is given up is some particular way of reaching a goal, rather than a complete abandonment of the objective. ... A man who can 'take it' and still do his best without bitterness is highly regarded in the Army as in civilian life. . . . [But] when the disappointment is much too severe for a man's strength to stand up under it, he may literally run away--go 'over the hill.' . . . More likely to occur is a sort of symbolic running away through feigned illness or physical defect."

Or the defeated man may actually become ill. The diseases may be "real enough, even though they have no organic basis . . . the hysterias . . . and war neuroses, miscalled shell shock in the World War, have this origin. When a soldier reaches a point where he can no longer stand up under the horrors he must face . . . and yet his spirit will not allow him to turn back, then he may suddenly go blind, lose the use of his arms or legs, or he may forget his name and everything connected with his identity and wander off."*

Who's Afraid? It is an axiom among battle-tried U.S. troops that "anybody who is not scared of bombs and bullets is a damn liar." The Infantry Journal article confirms this contention, says it is as true of the veteran as the green soldier, but it is also true of the enemy. "Germans and Japs get just as scared as Americans and Britons."

Fear, the psychologists say, is a good thing. "It is the body's preparation for action. The heart pounds faster, pumping blood . . . where its oxygen is needed. The lungs do their part by quickened breathing. Blood pressure goes up. Adrenalin, which is nature's own 'shot in the arm,' is poured into the blood stream. Sugar is released into the blood to act as fuel for the human fighting machine. . . . [The soldier's ] blood clots more readily. He loses temporarily the sense of fatigue even though he may have been dog tired."

Once in action, fear is forgotten if the soldier is well trained, so that he responds by habit to definite battle orders.

In order that the fear that precedes action may not become overpowering, the psychologists offer six aids: 1) do something--fight fear with work; 2) keep in sight of other men--just the presence of others minimizes fear; 3) call the roil to reassure the soldier that others are doing their part; 4) keep men informed of what is going on--"the known is never so fearful as the unknown"; 5) control the signs of fear; panicky men must be removed from the sight of others; 6) even statistics help--"the chances that any one man will be among those mortally wounded in any one battle are small."

"The coward, who must run when he is scared, is the one to dread terror. None but the brave can afford to fear."

*In New Guinea such cases are called "bomb batty."

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