Subjective Self-Interest in Contemporary Public Policy Disputes.

In this paper, we explore the influence of self-interest on people's policy preferences. Past research has found self-interest has little impact on political attitudes. However, many previous studies are limited by closed-ended survey data and objective measures of self-interest. To address these shortcomings, we conduct in-depth interviews to investigate people's subjective self-interest. The interviews show that people hold a number of beliefs about how policies will affect them personally, and that subjective self-interest influences policy preferences. Our research illustrates how people's perceptions of their self-interest can differ from objective measure of self-interest. The findings also provide evidence that subjective self-interest is not completely idiosyncratic or simply a rationalization for political attitudes. This paper highlights the importance of subjective self-interest, and illustrates the need for research into the origins of subjective self-interest and their impact on policy preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]