Public Opinion Between Rearmament and Crisis of the Nuclear Taboo

This article examines the changing relationship between the global public and nuclear weapons in the context of growing international insecurity. The authors describe the erosion of the concept of the “nuclear taboo”, understood as a deep–seated normative aversion to nuclear weapons. By considering the standard surveys as abstract, the experimental surveys place respondents in simulated strategic scenarios designed to evoke more authentic responses. The difference between results—against nuclear weapons in standard surveys and favorable in experimental surveys—is explained by the fact that both have two different objects: standard surveys are about “rational” opinions and experimental ones about “emotional” attitudes, both useful to detect. In a standard survey conducted in Italy in 2025 reveals 81% of respondents consider nuclear weapons fundamentally different from conventional ones and always wrong to use. Among opponents the dichotomy between “deontologists” and “consequentialists” is discussed. The article concludes underlining the value of integrating affective and cognitive dimensions in understanding public opinion as a measure against the normalization of nuclear weapons in political discourse.