TY - JOUR
T1 - Revisiting the self-interest versus values debate
T2 - The role of temporal perspective
AU - Hunt, Corrie V.
AU - Kim, Anita
AU - Borgida, Eugene
AU - Chaiken, Shelly
PY - 2010/11
Y1 - 2010/11
N2 - Scholars of public opinion have struggled to explain why people often vote against their economic self-interest in favor of a value-based rationale. Based on Construal Level Theory (Liberman, Trope, & Stephan, 2007), we argue that both values and material self-interest affect social and political attitudes, but in different temporal contexts. Specifically, because material self-interest is more concrete and applicable to everyday concerns, we predict that it should carry more weight with regard to judgments made in the context of the near future. In contrast, values, which are more abstract by nature, should carry greater weight for judgments made in the distant future. In an experimental test of this hypothesis, we presented participants with a fictitious policy that affected their pocketbooks in an otherwise value-laden domain. We found that people's financial self-interest more strongly predicted attitudes toward a proposal to increase tuition in the near condition, whereas antiegalitarian values more strongly predicted attitudes in the far condition. These findings offer new insights into the symbolic politics debate.
AB - Scholars of public opinion have struggled to explain why people often vote against their economic self-interest in favor of a value-based rationale. Based on Construal Level Theory (Liberman, Trope, & Stephan, 2007), we argue that both values and material self-interest affect social and political attitudes, but in different temporal contexts. Specifically, because material self-interest is more concrete and applicable to everyday concerns, we predict that it should carry more weight with regard to judgments made in the context of the near future. In contrast, values, which are more abstract by nature, should carry greater weight for judgments made in the distant future. In an experimental test of this hypothesis, we presented participants with a fictitious policy that affected their pocketbooks in an otherwise value-laden domain. We found that people's financial self-interest more strongly predicted attitudes toward a proposal to increase tuition in the near condition, whereas antiegalitarian values more strongly predicted attitudes in the far condition. These findings offer new insights into the symbolic politics debate.
KW - Construal level
KW - Self-interest
KW - Social attitudes
KW - Symbolic politics
KW - Values
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jesp.2010.05.004
DO - 10.1016/j.jesp.2010.05.004
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:77956617050
SN - 0022-1031
VL - 46
SP - 1155
EP - 1158
JO - Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
JF - Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
IS - 6
ER -