Split materialism: values and motivation for military service among Israeli youth through cross-sectional and longitudinal research, 1996–2022

This study empirically examines the social values of Israeli youth against the backdrop of mandatory military service in Israel. While theories about value changes in Western societies emphasise the rise of post-materialist values resulting from prosperous societies free from war, the picture in Israel is different. The research is based on a longitudinal study from 2022 and a cross-sectional study comparing samples from 1996 and 2022, incorporating demographic variables to examine the hypothesis of changing values in Western societies and motivation for military service in Israel. The findings indicate that in Israel, there has indeed been an increase in the importance of post-materialist values, but there is a greater dominance of materialist values. Furthermore, the relationship between these values and motivation for military service is split, with components of materialist values–security needs and subsistence needs–functioning differently from one another, contrary to theoretical expectations. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the research for understanding perceptions of military service and its relationship to social values in both Israel and other prosperous countries facing existential threats, as well as the motivation of youth serving in the military.