Stress in the air: A conjecture

Oded Stark*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The 1949 study The American Soldier: Combat and Its Aftermath, Volume II, by Stouffer et al. presents detailed accounts of the attitudes of American fighter pilots toward the stress experienced by them and of the policies and practices of the American Air Force command in addressing this stress during WWII. The 2022 study “Killer incentives” by Ager et al. documents an aspect and a repercussion of the stress of German fighter pilots and can be used to identify the response to that stress by the German Air Force command during WWII. Drawing on these two studies, in this paper I construct fighter pilot stress profiles in the two air forces. The picture that emerges is that there is a stark difference between the approaches of the two commands. This diversity leads me to conjecture that the American Air Force command explicitly sought to forestall and curtail fighter pilots’ stress, whereas the German Air Force command implicitly cultivated and engineered fighter pilots’ stress.

Original languageEnglish
Article number101430
JournalEconomics and Human Biology
Volume55
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2024
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Combat missions
  • Fighter pilot stress
  • Fighter pilots
  • Policies and practices of the American Air Force in curtailing stress
  • Policies and practices of the German Air Force in cultivating stress
  • WWII

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Stress in the air: A conjecture'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this