The Freedom-Loving Egoist and Other Imaginary Creatures: Testing Crucial Claims Regarding Freedom Values.

How are we to interpret the value shift in post-industrial societies towards a belief in individual freedom, and how important is this belief? Whereas previous research has argued for either a humanistic or an egoistic interpretation of the spreading com-mitment to individual freedom, this paper reveals that both sides are wrong. The main reason for this is their failure to operationalize the crucial concept of freedom values. This paper tests the main claims in the debate on the new freedom values by using better measures from the latest World Values Survey available (2005). The principal component analyses it presents clearly indicate that freeriding, hedonism, humanism, and freedom values are all separate dimensions. Moreover, freedom values cluster in two factors: negative and positive freedom. Finally, this paper also shows that not even in Sweden or the US, two of the purportedly most freedom-oriented countries in the world, do we find as many strong believers in these two freedoms as previous scholars have lead us to assume. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]