Decision Processes Contributing to Support and Willingness to Forward Links on the Ukraine War

Abstract

We investigated whether religiosity, political partisanship activism on the Ukraine-Russia conflict, decision making style, and time taken to complete an online Questionnaire predict willingness to forward the online Questionnaire to others. The Questionnaire study was conducted May-September 2024 on Qualtrics with an online sample of N=204. The online Questionnaire measured political support for Ukraine, Russia, or neither in the Ukraine-Russia War, decision making style on the Melbourne Decision Making Questionnaire (MDMQ), political activism, religiosity, and willingness to forward the Questionnaire. We found more support for Ukraine (73.5%) than for Russia (3.9%), than for neither side (22.5%). Religiosity was a factor in willingness to forward the Questionnaire. There was a tendency for religious participants to be more willing to forward the Questionnaire. A 2x2 MANOVA found that politically active participants were more willing to forward the Questionnaire and religious participants with a less vigilant decisional style were more willing to forward the Questionnaire. We measured time taken to complete the online Questionnaire. Participants neutral in the Ukraine-Russia conflict and who spent more time on the Questionnaire were more willing to forward the Questionnaire. The findings suggest people who are less vigilant, have stronger political viewpoints, and take more time completing Questionnaires, are more likely to spread information and accordingly might pose greater security risks in organisations.