In search for the homo economicus : qualitative exploration of personal belief systems (worldviews) about human nature and the relationship to neoliberal ideology

Worldview and ideology are two frequently used constructs in psychology. The former is about personal belief systems that give people meaning while the latter describes ideological belief systems usually in the context of sociopolitical attitudes. Whether they overlap, and if so how they interact with each other is rarely defined, a question which is discussed in this study in the framework of neoliberal ideology. Neoliberalism contains a concept of human beings as a “homo economicus”. Conceptions of human nature are also part of the worldview definition. This possible bridge between ideology and worldview is put to the test. In an interview setting, personal beliefs about humans and human nature were explored with 8 participants, based on which the correspondence with the homo economicus concept was estimated. This correspondence was then compared with the results of the neoliberal ideological beliefs questionnaire (NLI) for each participant. Overall, a trend to consistency between their level of correspondence with the homo economicus concept and their NLI values was observed. However, a remaining proportion was not “consistent”, which also varied between participants, where “less neoliberal” participants were more consistent. A recommendation out of this would be to further discuss the similarities between worldview and descriptive ideology concepts, potentially subsuming both under one term. Future research could then better distinguish ideology from this by focusing more on e.g. critical, social and psychoanalytical approaches and therefore how influences like manipulation, group-dynamics and -interests affect and “distort” belief systems and how to measure such influences.
eingereicht von: Benny William Bruno Greif
Masterarbeit Universität Innsbruck 2021