Value changes during war: coping with direct and indirect threats

Background and Objectives: This two-wave longitudinal study examines changes in personal values during war, investigating mean changes and the impact of situational and socio-demographic variables on values’ change. Design: The study is based on the theory of human values (Schwartz, 2017). Methods: The measurements were conducted several weeks before Hamas’s invasion of Israel in October 2023, and eight months later, during the war in Gaza. Jewish Israelis, aged 18–35 years, participated in the study (n = 600). Results: The importance of self-direction-action and achievement values decreased, and the importance of power-dominance and security-social values increased during the war. For all values, a higher pre-war level of a value was associated with a smaller change in this value during the war. A stronger threat to oneself during the war was associated with larger increases in power-dominance and humility values and larger decreases in universalism-care values. People who perceived a stronger threat to close others showed a smaller decrease in self-direction-action and a larger decrease in security-personal values. Conclusions: The study enhances our understanding of coping with war threats by examining changes in the individual’s motivational system.