Replication Data for: Under No Circumstances? What the Chinese Really Think about the Wartime Use of Nuclear Weapons

The idea of using nuclear weapons to kill noncombatants is said to evoke strong moral opprobrium among millions of individuals across the globe, such that national leaders should be constrained from using the weapons even when such a decision would be strategically sensible. Classical area scholarship and recent survey evidence suggest that this “nuclear taboo” is strong among the Chinese public, buttressed by culturally grounded preferences for moderation in warfare. Drawing on findings in cultural sociology and political behavior, we argue that previous studies mislead on the extent to which ordinary Chinese citizens might oppose the use of nuclear weapons in a real military clash, primarily due to a failure to distinguish baseline preferences for nuclear nonuse from the willingness to approve of governmental decisions to use these weapons. Results from an original survey experiment fielded in mainland China show that many individuals who personally dislike the idea of using nuclear weapons are nonetheless willing to support their leaders’ decision to do so. Our study contributes new and systematic knowledge about Chinese nuclear attitudes and highlights the value of harnessing interdisciplinary insights to inform the research agenda on the nuclear taboo.使用核武器杀伤非战斗人员的理念，据称在全球数百万民众中引发了强烈的道德谴责，以至于即便使用核武器的决策在战略上具备合理性，各国领导人仍应受到约束而不得动用此类武器。经典区域研究学术成果与近期民调证据均表明，这一“核禁忌”在中国公众中拥有坚实基础，而这种基础得到了战争节制的文化偏好的支撑。本研究借鉴文化社会学与政治行为领域的研究结论，指出过往研究在普通中国民众在真实军事冲突中反对使用核武器的程度这一问题上存在误导，其核心原因在于未能区分民众对不使用核武器的基线偏好，与认可政府动用核武器决策的意愿二者之间的差异。在中国大陆开展的原创性调查实验结果显示，不少在个人层面反感使用核武器的民众，仍愿意支持本国领导人动用核武器的决策。本研究为中国民众的核态度研究提供了全新的系统性认知，并强调了借助跨学科视角为核禁忌相关研究议程提供支撑的重要价值。