A research team from Waseda University and Erasmus University in the Netherlands statistically confirmed that the perception of geographical distance reduces support for a victim country with which one has friendly relations.
Geography is known to be important when implementing policies regarding aid to friendly countries, but discussions of this issue have often been based on impressionism and little support from empirical data that follows transparent scientific methods.
The research team therefore used an online survey experiment in October 2023 to compare hypothetical crisis scenarios of "Russia's military invasion of Moldova" and "China's military invasion of Taiwan" with a "neutral scenario" among Czech and Japanese citizens.
As a result, the percentage of citizens who supported using their country's military force to support Taiwan, which had been invaded by China, was 56% for Japanese participants and 21% for Czech participants, a difference of more than 30%. In the case of Russia's invasion of Moldova, support for military support was low in Japan and relatively high in the Czech Republic. Furthermore, it was found that the issue of distance has a significant impact not only on military support, but also on economic and humanitarian aid, support for refugee acceptance policies, and other areas.
In both the Czech Republic and Japan, other factors that lead to support for military assistance to friendly countries include male gender, militarism, and social dominance orientation (a psychological tendency to recognize social inequality and seek a superior position over others). Furthermore, even when controlling for the effect of distance, the data confirmed that in Japan, there is a strong public opinion that "Taiwan must be helped because it is Taiwan."
Due to the limitations of the data, this study does not represent the general opinion of Japanese people, but the demonstration that the perception of distance is important is significant. In the future, it is necessary to verify the robustness of the findings through replication experiments in the Czech Republic and Japan.
Paper information:[Conflict Management and Peace Science] Friends as Neighbors? Geographic Closeness Improves Support to Other Governments
