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The Effect of Economic Priorities on the Measurement of Value Change: New Experimental Evidence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Harold D. Clarke ,
Allan Kornberg ,
Chris McIntyre ,
Petra Bauer-Kaase  and
Max Kaase
Harold D. Clarke
Affiliation:
University of North Texas
Allan Kornberg
Affiliation:
Duke University
Chris McIntyre
Affiliation:
Endicott College
Petra Bauer-Kaase
Affiliation:
Wissenschaftszentrum
Max Kaase
Affiliation:
Wissenschaftszentrum
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Abstract

The Euro-Barometer values battery has provided much of the empirical evidence for the thesis that a shift from materialist to postmaterialist values has occurred in advanced industrial societies over the past two decades. It has been argued, however, that this widely used instrument is seriously flawed because of its sensitivity to current economic conditions. We present data from experiments in Canada and Germany that tested the performance of the values battery in an era of joblessness. Analyses reveal that (1) substituting an unemployment statement for the standard inflation statement in the battery has major consequences for the classification of respondents as materialist or postmaterialist and (2) answers to the battery are conditioned by the interaction between its content and respondents' economic issue concerns. These findings support the argument that much of the shift from materialist to postmaterialist values recorded by the Euro-Barometer since the early 1980s is a measurement artifact.

Type
Forum
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 93 , Issue 3 , September 1999 , pp. 637 - 647
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1999

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