Russia
Definition
Russia refers to the national context in which a large-scale survey study examined how citizens construe the war in Ukraine in terms of its consequences for their core values, including security, conformity, tradition, benevolence, and universalism. The study surveyed 973 Russian citizens in August 2022, a period marked by wartime repression, active state media dominance, and restricted access to independent information. State media spending reached $1.7 billion in 2025, reflecting sustained governmental investment in controlling public interpretation of the war, while citizens retained some access to independent online outlets. Latent profile analysis identified two value-construal profiles: 31% of respondents saw the war as preserving social order by enhancing conservation values, and 69% saw it as undermining that order. This distribution predicted pro-war attitudes and intentions to support or resist the war beyond the effects of right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, and national identity.
Sources: Ponizovskiy et al. (2026)
Related Terms
- collective action (1 shared article)
- authoritarianism (1 shared article)
- propaganda (1 shared article)
- Ukraine (1 shared article)
- values (1 shared article)
- value-instantiating beliefs (1 shared article)
Applications
Russia and State Media Consumption
In the Russian sample, consumption of state media was associated with construing the war as beneficial for conservation values, specifically security, conformity, and tradition, and as harmful to stimulation and achievement. State media were both used and trusted more than independent media, though trust in both fell below the midpoint of the scale. Independent media consumption showed the opposite pattern, linking to more negative construals of conservation values and more positive construals of stimulation and achievement.
Sources: Ponizovskiy et al. (2026)
Russia and Value-instantiating Beliefs
Value-instantiating beliefs, defined as beliefs about whether a specific event benefits or threatens a particular value, were measured across ten basic value types in the Russian wartime context. Raw value-instantiating beliefs toward the war were broadly negative, with the most negative means recorded for universalism, hedonism, and power, and stimulation was the sole value receiving a positive mean construal. After controlling for right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, and national identity, seven of nine value-instantiating beliefs remained significantly associated with war attitudes.
Sources: Ponizovskiy et al. (2026)
Russia and Political Action Intentions
Among Russian citizens surveyed in August 2022, membership in the profile construing the war as preserving social order predicted stronger intentions to engage in political action in support of the war. Intentions to resist were associated weakly with higher benevolence construals and lower tradition construals. These relationships held after accounting for authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, and national identity.
Sources: Ponizovskiy et al. (2026)
