Predictors of pro- and anti-Russian attitudes displayed by Romanians at the beginning of the Russian military aggression against Ukraine

Abstract

The Russia-Ukraine war is a disruptive event not only from a geopolitical point of view, but also from a societal perspective because it affects people's daily lives. For Romania, a bordering country to the Russian-Ukrainian conflagration, the beginning of the war was marked by overwhelming media coverage, anxiety and concerns about the war, as well as polarised attitudes, either supporting or blaming Russia for the conflict. This paper seeks to understand the factors that influenced the Romanian citizens' stances towards Russia, immediately after the onset of the war. A national survey (N=1006), conducted in April-May 2022, investigated to what extent pro- and anti-Russia attitudes could have been predicted by people's news consumption habits in that period, by their concerns about the war, by political cynicism and ideology, or by a conspiracy mindset. The findings of the survey show that the concerns about the war influence most people's attitudes towards Russia. Other significant predictors are doomscrolling (people's incessant need to check negative news about the war), embracing a conspiracy mindset, political cynicism, and the degree of news consumption. It seems that the high levels of news consumption, especially on social media, lead to increased pro-Russian attitudes.