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Self‐Interest, Symbolic Attitudes, and Support for Public Policy: A Multilevel Analysis
Author(s) -
Lau Richard R.,
Heldman Caroline
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
political psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.419
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1467-9221
pISSN - 0162-895X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9221.2009.00713.x
Subject(s) - social psychology , affect (linguistics) , national election , self interest , public opinion , politics , multilevel model , psychology , special interest group , political science , communication , machine learning , computer science , law
This paper examines the role of self‐interest and symbolic attitudes as predictors of support for two domestic policy issues—guaranteed jobs and incomes and national health insurance—in the American National Election Survey (ANES) between 1972 and 2004. As was the case in 1976 when Sears, Lau, Tyler, and Allen (1980) first explored this topic, symbolic attitudes continue to be much more important predictors of policy attitudes than various indicators of self‐interest over the 30 years we analyze. We explore this finding further to determine whether any individual/internal and external/contextual variables affect the magnitude of self‐interest effects on policy support. Five possible internal moderators of self‐interest effects are examined: (1) political knowledge, (2) issue publics, (3) political values, (4) social identifications, and (5) emotions, but none are found to boost the magnitude of the self‐interest effect. However, we do find some evidence that contextual variables representing the social/information environment moderate the impact of self‐interest on public opinion.