Abstract

Dramatic improvements in US military medicine have produced an equally dramatic shift in the kinds of battle casualties the US military has sustained in its most recent wars. Specifically, there has been a notable increase in the ratio of nonfatal to fatal casualties. Most studies of casualty aversion in the United States, however, have focused on fatal casualties. Using a series of survey experiments, I investigate whether respondents are equally sensitive to fatal and nonfatal casualties, differences between populations with and without close military ties, and whether views on casualties are conditioned by respondents’ level of knowledge about casualties or the individual costs of war they expect to incur. I find that, while the general public is generally insensitive to different types of casualties, respondents with close ties to the military are better able to distinguish among kinds of casualties. This advantage, however, is not due to respondents with close military ties being better informed about war casualties. Instead, those who bear the costs of war directly appear better able to distinguish among those costs.

中文翻译：

---

生命与肢体：美国对伤亡厌恶的新估计

摘要

美国军事医学的显着进步使美国军方在最近的战争中所遭受的战斗伤亡也发生了同样戏剧性的变化。具体而言，非致命伤亡人数的比率显着增加。但是，美国对伤亡厌恶的大多数研究都集中在致命伤亡上。通过一系列调查实验，我调查了受访者对致命和非致命伤亡是否同样敏感，有或没有密切军事联系的人口之间的差异，以及对伤亡的看法是否取决于受访者对伤亡的了解水平或个人的成本。他们期望发生的战争。我发现，尽管一般民众对不同类型的伤亡不敏感，与军方有密切联系的被调查者能够更好地区分伤亡情况。但是，这种优势并不是由于与军方有密切联系的被调查者能更好地了解战争伤亡情况。相反，那些直接承担战争代价的人似乎能够更好地区分这些代价。