Values vs. Self-Interest as Determinants of Attitudes: Through a Construal Level Theory Lens, (Sometimes) Self-Interest Wins

The present study (n = 335) attempted to conceptually replicate Hunt, Kim, Borgida, and Chaiken (2010) with a high-powered design to investigate whether values and self-interest differentially impact attitudes depending on psychological distance. Participants were assigned to complete a task that made self- or other-focused values more accessible, then indicated their attitudes about a student fee increase at a university to fund scholarships the participants would not be eligible to receive (thus going against their own financial self-interest for the well being of someone else). The memo describing the fee increase was manipulated such that the increase would be occurring at either the socially proximal University of Arkansas (where the study was conducted), or socially distal University of Maine. Measures of financial strain we used as measures of self-interest, and an additional measure of values was collected prior to the values manipulation. Results showed that values (regardless of being measured or manipulated) had no significant effect on attitudes, but self-interest (when operationalized as objective financial strain) and construal did. As participants’ financial strain (i.e., self-interest) went up, support for the fee increase went down; and support for the fee increase was greater in the socially distal condition. Hunt and colleagues’ model did not replicate with the present data, as no interactions between these three variables were found