The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End

by Neil Howe

After the 9/11 attack, the sheer scale of the losses sent most survey measures of American patriotism and public trust soaring for nearly a year. And the effect is greatest when the losses are suffered by an entire nation in an ongoing conflict that lasts for years. In dozens of studies of wartime survivors around the world, social scientists consistently find (according to one meta-review) that afterward “in case after case, people exposed to war violence go on to behave more cooperatively and altruistically” and “tend to increase their social participation by joining more local social and civic groups or taking on more leadership roles in their communities.” Most of the studies find no decline in their pro-social behavior over time.