How Our Life Experiences Affect Our Politics: The Roles of Vested Interest and Affect in Shaping Policy Preferences
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15763/issn.2374-7781.2011.32.0.3-29Abstract
Scholars investigating the role of self-interest in determining policy preferences find that self-interest has weak effects. However, researchers have refined their concepts of self-interest and are now finding a greater role for it (e.g., Crano 1995). We continue along this line of research, considering different mechanisms by which self-interest may come to be important. We argue that measuring people’s perceived self-interest in a policy (which we call vested interest) is important for understanding how people pursue their self-interest. We find that while life circumstances can cause people to endorse vested interest, emotion is an important mediator of this relationship. Finally, we test the notion that value change mediates between vested interest and support for a policy, and find evidence for a reciprocal relationship.References
Baron, Jonathan, and Sarah Leshner. 2000. How Serious are Expressions of Protected Values? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied 6(3):183-194. Barnea, Marina F., and Shalom H. Schwartz. 1998. Values and Voting. Political Psychology 19(March):17-40.
Bernard, Mark M., Gregory R. Maio, and James M. Olson. 2003. The Vulnerability of Values to Attack: Inoculation of Values and Value-Relevant Attitudes. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 29(1):63-75. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0146167202238372
Berry, William D. 1984. Nonrecursive Causal Models. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412985321
Boninger, David S., Jon A. Krosnick, and Matthew K. Berent. 1995. Origins of Attitude Importance: Self-Interest, Social Identification and Value Relevance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 68(1):61-80. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.68.1.61
Calhoun-Brown, Allison. 1996. African-American Churches and Political Mobilization: The Psychological Impact of Organizational Resources. Journal of Politics 58(4): 935-953. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2960144
Caprara, Gian Vittoro, Shalom Schwartz, Cristina Capanna, Michele Vecchiore, and Claudio Barbaranelli. 2006. Personality and Politics: Values, Traits and Political Choice. Political Psychology 27(February):1-28. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9221.2006.00447.x
Crano, William D. 1995. Attitude Strength and Vested Interest. In Attitude Strength: Antecedents and Consequences, eds. Richard E. Petty and Jon A. Krosnick. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates.
Crano, William D. 1997a. Vested Interest, Symbolic Politics, and Attitude-Behavior Consistency. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 72(3):485-491. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.72.3.485
Crano, William D. 1997b. Vested Interest and Symbolic Politics—Observations and Recommendations: Reply to Sears (1997). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 72(3):497-500. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.72.3.497
Eagly, Alice H., and Shelly Chaiken. 1998. Attitude Structure and Function. Pp. 269-322 in Handbook of Social Psychology. Columbus, OH: McGraw-Hill.
Feldman, Stanley. 1987. Evaluation of New Equality Items. Technical Report to the American National Election Study, September 29.
Feldman, Stanley. 1988. Structure and Consistency in Public Opinion: The Role of Core Beliefs and Values. American Journal of Political Science 32:416-440. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2111130
Feldman, Stanley, and Marco Steenbergen. 2001. The Humanitarian Foundation of Public Support for Social Welfare. American Journal of Political Science 45(July):658677. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2669244
Feldman, Stanley, and Leonie Huddy. 2005. The Paradoxical Effects of Anxiety on Political Learning. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, April.
Godwin, Deborah D. 1985. Simultaneous Equations in Family Research. Journal of Marriage and the Family 47(February):9-22. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/352064
Gomez, Brad T., and J. Matthew Wilson. 2001. Political Sophistication and Economic Voting in the American Electorate: A Theory of Heterogeneous Attribution. American Journal of Political Science 45(October):899-914. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2669331
Goren, Paul. 2005. Party Identification and Core Political Values. American Journal of Political Science 49:881-896. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2005.00161.x
Grafstein, Robert. 2005. The Impact of Employment Status on Voting Behavior. Journal of Politics 67(August):804-824. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2508.2005.00340.x
Gray, Jeffrey A. 1987. The Psychology of Fear and Stress. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hamilton, Alexander, James Madison, and John Jay. 1961. The Federalist Papers. New York: Signet Classics.
Holahan, John, and Allison Cook. 2005 (Nov. 1). Changes in Economic Conditions and Health Insurance Coverage, 2000-2004. Health Affairs. Retrieved January 3, 2006 from http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/reprint/hlthaff.w5.498v1?ijkey= QG3WTSW8ppHpE&keytype=ref&siteid=healthaff.
Huddy, Leonie, Stanley Feldman, and Erin Cassese. 2007. On the Distinct Political Effects of Anxiety and Anger. Pp. 202-230 in The Affect Effect: Dynamics of Emotion in Political Thinking and Behavior, eds. W. Russell Neuman, George E. Marcus, Ann Crigler, and Michael MacKuen. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226574431.003.0009
Hunt, Corrie V., Anita Kim, Eugene Borgida, and Shelly Chaiken. 2010. Revisting the Self-Interest versus Values Debate: The Role of Temporal Perspective. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 46:1155-1158. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2010.05.004
Kiewiet, D. Roderick. 1983. Macroeconomics and Micropolitics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Kinder, Donald R., and D. Roderick Kiewiet. 1979. Economic Discontent and Political Behavior: The Role of Personal Grievances and Collective Economic Judgments in Congressional Voting. American Journal of Political Science 23(August):495-527. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2111027
Lau, Richard R., and Caroline Heldman. 2009. Self-Interest, Symbolic Attitudes, and Support for Public Policy: A Multi-Level Analysis. Political Psychology 30(August):513-537. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9221.2009.00713.x
LeDoux, Joseph. 1996. The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Lehman, Barbara J., and William D. Crano. 2002. The Pervasive Effects of Vested Interest on Attitude-Criterion Consistency in Political Judgment. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 38:101-112. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jesp.2001.1489
MacCoun, Robert J., and Susannah Paletz. 2009. Citizens Perceptions of the Ideological Bias in Research on Public Policy Controversies. Political Psychology 30(February):43-66. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9221.2008.00680.x
Maio, Gregory R., and James M. Olson. 1998. Values as Truisms: Evidence and Implications. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 74(2):294-311. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.74.2.294
MacKuen, Michael, George E. Marcus, W. Russell Neuman, and Luke Keele. 2007. The Third Way: The Theory of Affective Intelligence and American Democracy. Pp. 124-151 in The Affect Effect: Dynamics of Emotion in Political Thinking and Behavior, eds. W. Russell Neuman, George E. Marcus, Ann Crigler, and Michael MacKuen. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Marcus, George E., W. Russell Neuman, and Michael B. MacKuen. 2000. Affective Intelligence and Political Judgment. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Markus, Gregory B. 1988. The Impact of Personal and National Economic Conditions on the Presidential Vote: A Pooled Cross-Sectional Analysis. American Journal of Political Science 32(February):137-154. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2111314
Markus, Gregory. 1990. Measuring Popular Individualism. Technical report to the American National Election Study.
McCann, James A. 1997. Electoral Choices and Core Value Change: The 1992 Presidential Election. American Journal of Political Science 41(2):564-583. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2111777
Nadeau, Richard, Richard G. Niemi, and Timothy Amato. 1995. Emotions, Issue Importance, and Political Learning. American Journal of Political Science 39(August): 558-574. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2111644
Ortony, Andrew, Gerald C. Clore, and Allan Collins. 1988. The Cognitive Structure of Emotions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511571299
Panskepp, Jaak. 1998. Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Petty, Richard E., and John T. Cacioppo. 1986. Communication and Persuasion: Central and Peripheral Routes to Attitude Change. New York: Springer-Verlag. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4964-1
Prisline, Radmila, and Judith Ouellette. 1996. When it is Embedded, it is Potent: Effects of General Attitude Embeddedness on Formation of Specific Attitudes and Behavioral Intentions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 22(8):845-861. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0146167296228007
Redlawsk, David P., Andrew J.W. Civettini, and Richard R. Lau. 2007. Affective Intelligence and Voting: Information Processing and Learning in a Campaign. Pp. 152-179 in The Affect Effect: Dynamics of Emotion in Political Thinking and Behavior, eds. W. Russell Neuman, George E. Marcus, Ann Crigler, and Michael MacKuen. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Romero, David W., and Stephen J. Stambough. 1996. Personal Economic Well-Being and the Individual Vote for Congress: A Pooled Analysis, 1980-1990. Political Research Quarterly 49(September):607-616. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/449100 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/106591299604900308
Rudolph, Thomas J., Amy Gangl, and Dan Stevens. 2000. The Effects of Efficacy and Emotion on Campaign Involvement. Journal of Politics 62(4):1189-1197. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/0022-3816.00053
Rudolph, Thomas J. 2002. The Economic Sources of Congressional Approval. Legislative Studies Quarterly 27(November):577-599. http://dx.doi.org/10.3162/036298002X200738 http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3598660
Sears, David O. 1997. The Impact of Self-Interest on Attitudes—A Symbolic Politics Perspective on Differences Between Survey and Experimental Findings: Comment on Crano (1997). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 72(3):492-496. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.72.3.492
Sears, David O., and Carolyn L. Funk. 1991. The Role of Self-Interest in Social and Political Attitudes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 24:1-91. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(08)60327-5
Sears, David O., and Carolyn L. Funk. 1999. Evidence of the Long-Term Persistence of Adults' Political Predispositions. Journal of Politics 61(1):1-28. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2647773
Sigelman, Lee, Carol K. Sigelman, and David Bullock. 1991. Reconsidering Pocketbook Voting: An Experimental Approach. Politcal Behavior 13(2):129-149. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00992293
Staiger, Douglas, and James H. Stock. 1997. Instrumental Variables Regression with Weak Instruments. Econometrica 65:557-586. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2171753
Valentino, Nicholas A., Antoine J. Banks, Vincent L. Hutchings, and Anne K. Davis. 2009. Selective Exposure in the Internet Age: The Interaction Between Anxiety and Information Utility. Political Psychology 30(August):591-614. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9221.2009.00716.x
Valentino, Nicholas A., Vincent L. Hutchings, Antoine J. Banks, and Anne K. Davis. 2008. Is a Worried Citizen a Good Citizen? Emotions, Political Information Seeking, and Learning via the Internet. Political Psychology 29(April):247-273. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9221.2008.00625.x
Verplanken, Bas, and Rob W. Hollard. 2002. Motivated Decision Making: Effects of Activation and Self-Centrality of Values on Choices and Behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 82(3):434-447. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.82.3.434
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with American Review of Politics agree to the following terms:
The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
Attribution: other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
Non-Commercial: the materials may not be used for commercial purposes;
Share Alike: If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.
with the understanding that the above condition can be waived with permission from the Author and that where the Work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.
The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a pre-publication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (see The Effect of Open Access). Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
The Author represents and warrants that:
the Work is the Author’s original work;
the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
the Work has not previously been published;
the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.
