When sheepdogs become wolves : military veterans’ resilience to false and harmful narratives

This study aims to determine if American and Canadian military veterans are more susceptible to false and harmful political narratives than civilians in their respective countries. The factors used to assess this vulnerability include Social Alienation, In-group Identity, the Willingness to Take Action, the Propensity to Use Violence, and the Resonance with the Hero’s Journey narrative. A total of 928 participants, comprising 464 military veterans and 464 civilians, participated in this 28-question quantitative survey. Results from the Exploratory Factor Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis, and validity evaluations indicate that the proposed Five-factor model is a reliable and valid psychometric tool for measuring this vulnerability. Furthermore, results from the T-test and Cohen’s D-test suggest that veterans score higher than civilians in In-group Identity (t (930) = 3.323, p < .001, and d = .218) and Propensity to Take Action (fight t (930) = 6.352, p < .001, and d = 0.2; flight t (930) = 7.734, p < .001, and d = 0.507). Additionally, the Hero’s Journey resonated with both groups, with veterans showing a significantly greater response than civilians, particularly concerning the “overcome obstacles” item (t (930) = 3.254, p < .001, d = 0.21) of the Hero’s Journey. Furthermore, war veterans report a higher sense of In-group Identity (t (464) = 3.011, p < .001 and d = 0.288) and the “new adventures” item (t (464) = 2.543, p = .006 and d = 0.23) of the Hero’s Journey compared to military personnel who have never deployed to war. Additionally, the results suggest a significant negative correlation between Social Alienation and Resonance to the Hero’s Journey (r (928) = -.469, p = .001). In contrast, a significant positive correlation is found between In-group Identity and the Hero’s Journey factors (r (928) = .349, p = .001). An important implication of this study is that the proposed Hero’s Journey Model, comprising Narrative Counselling, Logotherapy, the Hope-Action approach, and veteran-centric group therapy, is likely to be beneficial in counselling veterans and developing public policies to enhance veteran resilience.