Veterans are less likely to support far-right or far-left extremist groups than the general public despite increased attention, particularly from Democratic lawmakers, on current and former military members’ ties to extremist organizations, according to a study released Tuesday by the RAND Corporation.
Among a survey of nearly 1,000 veterans representative of the national population, RAND, a nonprofit firm that conducts research for the Department of Defense (DOD), found no evidence to support the notion that veterans are more likely to support or be a part of extremist groups than Americans in general. Concerns that extremist groups may single out veterans for recruitment into their organizations, and the seemingly disproportional representation of veterans among the Jan. 6 Capitol protesters, prompted calls to investigate and address a perceived problem of extremism in the military.
“Given the anecdotal information about extremist group recruitment preferences and their active targeting of veterans, we would have assumed that these reported prevalence rates would be higher,” Todd Helmus, a senior behavioral scientist at RAND and the study’s lead author, said in a press release.