COLOMBIA: Supporting the Troops?

Do people reveal their true feelings in surveys? Professor Aila Matanock provides experimental data showing that Colombians overstate their support for the military in traditional surveys.

Open a newspaper in Colombia, and you are sure to find headlines touting the success of the military and the general public’s support of its counterinsurgency operations. “The dominant view in Colombia is that the military is pretty widely supported,” said Aila M. Matanock, an assistant professor of Political Science at UC Berkeley who focuses on civil conflict and international intervention.