Cynicism, Political Extremism, and Associated Factors in Military Service Academies

Military extremism is a critical threat to democratic norms. While past research has found that cynicism is positively associated with political extremism in the general population, it has not fully addressed the association between cynicism and military extremism—nor what factors are associated with cynicism to begin with. We identify social media use, organizational instability, and psychological distance from leadership as potential predictors of cynicism. We then test their association with both cynicism and political extremism using a novel survey of United States service academy students. We find that organizational instability and the use of anonymous social media to “share concerns” are positively associated with cynicism, while other uses of social media, psychological distance, and alternative explanations involving military socialization are not. Finally, both cynicism and organizational instability are associated with greater political extremism. This study thus highlights structural factors that may affect personal levels of cynicism and extremism.