A Panel Study of the Effects of Long-Term Unemployment upon Individualist Values

University Of North Texas, Denton TX

Investigators

Abstract

This project investigates the effect of personal experience upon core American values. Many scholars concur that core values provide a stable foundation for people's attitudes on public policy. The argument is that such values as individualism and equality are formed early in life and are relatively resistant to change. The question remains whether people's values might change when their personal experiences and knowledge of others' experiences challenge beliefs at the heart of those values. The intellectual merit of this project is rooted in its examination of the effect of chronic unemployment upon people's attitudes toward the value of hard work, which lies at the heart of economic individualism. The context for the project is the fact that so many US citizens are affected by the current economic conditions, especially that of long-term unemployment. This project, informed by extant scholarly work, posits that the personal circumstance of unemployment, combined with information about others' problems and the severity of the economic downturn, should affect people's beliefs about the extent to which they have control of their economic well-being and their own sense of satisfaction, which in turn should reduce their support for one core value of American politics, individualism--that is, the belief that people should get ahead on their own hard work. This study builds on the investigator's prior work in order to assess the effect of unemployment, as well as the general economic downturn, on changes in people's individualist attitudes. This project will re-interview, for two additional waves, respondents from the investigator's September 2010 survey of the general population, with an oversample of unemployed respondents. That first study collected information about respondents' attitudes toward individualism and equality, as well as measures of their employment status, length of unemployment, their information about others' unemployment, and their attitudes about their recent financial situation and future prospects. By re-interviewing these respondents, this project will allow for an examination of any change in respondents' values, the nature of those changes, and the extent to which personal experiences are related to those changes as the nation's economy improves and people return to work. This study makes several broader contributions. It will create a publicly available dataset of special interest to scholars studying the impact of significant personal experiences such as unemployment upon political attitudes. The study will also have policy implications for determining, for example, whether extending unemployment benefits, which can ameliorate unemployment's negative consequences, has an effect upon public support for social welfare policies. Perhaps most broadly, the project enhances understanding of the deepest recession since the Great Depression. The lessons it offers hold interest for scholars, policymakers, and citizens alike.