Method
Participants completed the following blocks in a random order: (1)
Value priorities and ratings and (2) randomly ordered attitude scales
(anti-establishment, confidence in democratic institutions, and support
for change). Then, they indicated their ideologies and completed a
demographic questionnaire.
In the priorities block, they first indicated their perceived priorities
of the US on paper (like the constitution). Then, they indicated their
own priorities if they were to design a country from scratch (and be
randomly born into it). And then, for each value, they indicated on a
0-100 scale the extent to which they believe the US provides this value
(regardless of party).
In the scales block, they just completed some randomly ordered likert
scales.
Measures
US on paper
Participants were shown the following prompt:
First, we want you to think of the United States.
Since its independence and onwards, the formation of the US as a
sovereign country was based on a number of values, all of which were
inscribed in the constitution. This document, importantly, has evolved
since its inception.
ON PAPER (in the constitution), what are the values that the US stands
for? We want you to indicate the United State’s priorities ON
PAPER.
To that end, you have a sum of 100 points. Please allocate those points
to the following values based on how important you think they are to the
US ON PAPER.
The values, presented in alphabetical order, are: Capitalism,
Compassion, Equality, Freedom, Happiness, National Pride, Progress, and
Security.
So, If you think a certain value is more important than another value,
then the first value would get more points than the second. If you think
a certain value is not important at all, it would get zero points. Must
total 100 points.
|
value
|
mean_weight
|
|
capitalism
|
13.72
|
|
compassion
|
8.00
|
|
equality
|
15.31
|
|
freedom
|
24.42
|
|
happiness
|
10.21
|
|
nationalpride
|
8.24
|
|
progress
|
8.26
|
|
security
|
11.84
|
By ideology
I’ll categorize anyone who is over 50 on a certain ideology as part
of that ideological group.
|
value
|
con
|
demsoc
|
lbrtn
|
lib
|
prog
|
rwn
|
|
capitalism
|
13.49
|
13.50
|
16.53
|
12.79
|
14.20
|
13.50
|
|
compassion
|
8.06
|
8.03
|
8.21
|
8.39
|
8.35
|
9.05
|
|
equality
|
13.42
|
16.45
|
13.53
|
16.55
|
14.34
|
11.86
|
|
freedom
|
24.68
|
23.31
|
21.08
|
23.62
|
22.63
|
23.43
|
|
happiness
|
10.66
|
10.12
|
10.44
|
10.21
|
9.84
|
11.40
|
|
nationalpride
|
9.33
|
8.35
|
9.08
|
8.65
|
9.08
|
9.55
|
|
progress
|
8.24
|
8.75
|
8.50
|
8.88
|
9.93
|
8.88
|
|
security
|
12.13
|
11.49
|
12.64
|
10.92
|
11.63
|
12.33
|
Ideal
Participants were shown the following prompt:
Now, we want you to imagine your ideal country.
Importantly, imagine this ideal state as if you are randomly born into
its population. You can end up in any level of its citizenry.
So, if you could design a country completely from scratch and write its
constitution, what would be its guiding values?
To that end, you have a sum of 100 points. Please allocate those points
to the following values based on how important they are TO YOU.
The values, presented in alphabetical order, are: Capitalism,
Compassion, Equality, Freedom, Happiness, National Pride, Progress, and
Security.
So, If you think a certain value is more important than another value,
then the first value would get more points than the second. If you think
a certain value is not important at all, it would get zero points. Must
total 100 points.
|
value
|
mean_weight
|
|
capitalism
|
6.70
|
|
compassion
|
12.48
|
|
equality
|
18.10
|
|
freedom
|
20.99
|
|
happiness
|
14.28
|
|
nationalpride
|
5.02
|
|
progress
|
10.77
|
|
security
|
11.67
|
By ideology
|
value
|
con
|
demsoc
|
lbrtn
|
lib
|
prog
|
rwn
|
|
capitalism
|
11.64
|
4.09
|
10.30
|
4.87
|
4.89
|
11.69
|
|
compassion
|
9.91
|
14.53
|
11.11
|
14.71
|
13.57
|
8.07
|
|
equality
|
12.38
|
22.34
|
14.74
|
21.13
|
21.09
|
11.62
|
|
freedom
|
22.84
|
17.67
|
21.91
|
18.24
|
17.98
|
22.26
|
|
happiness
|
12.98
|
15.11
|
13.70
|
14.89
|
15.24
|
13.45
|
|
nationalpride
|
7.95
|
3.73
|
7.21
|
4.15
|
4.33
|
10.02
|
|
progress
|
8.92
|
12.73
|
9.67
|
11.84
|
12.89
|
9.00
|
|
security
|
13.38
|
9.80
|
11.36
|
10.17
|
10.01
|
13.88
|
US in Practice
We then asked participants to indicate the extent to which they think
the US provides each of these values. They were shown the following
prompt:
Now, please indicate the extent to which the US government, regardless
of party, is providing each of these values, IN PRACTICE.
In the scale below, 0 means that the US does not provide what this value
stands for at all (it cannot get any worse) and 100 means that the US
does provide what this value stands for to a great extent (it cannot get
any better).
By ideology
|
value
|
con
|
demsoc
|
lbrtn
|
lib
|
prog
|
rwn
|
|
capitalism
|
62.69
|
73.20
|
67.91
|
71.99
|
72.62
|
56.40
|
|
compassion
|
38.91
|
25.98
|
36.44
|
26.38
|
26.86
|
44.45
|
|
equality
|
49.06
|
30.89
|
40.94
|
31.83
|
32.04
|
49.76
|
|
freedom
|
57.82
|
49.21
|
54.82
|
51.48
|
50.67
|
53.55
|
|
happiness
|
46.46
|
27.66
|
43.58
|
30.62
|
31.68
|
47.38
|
|
nationalpride
|
48.92
|
52.02
|
52.50
|
53.03
|
53.08
|
47.14
|
|
progress
|
50.40
|
36.79
|
47.67
|
39.20
|
38.28
|
51.36
|
|
security
|
60.83
|
55.53
|
62.97
|
56.58
|
56.02
|
55.40
|
Anti-establishment
A combination of items from ISPP international surveys (used here: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/viewFile/3949/3949)
and a recent IPSOS survey (https://www.ipsos.com/en/broken-system-sentiment-2022).
Participants indicated their agreement (1-7) with the following
statements:
1. The US’s economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful
2. Traditional politicians and parties don’t care about people like
me
3. Experts in this country don’t understand the lives of people like
me
4. Most of the time we can trust people in the government to do what is
right (R)
R indicates a reverse-scored item
Cronbach’s alpha = 0.788
Confidence in Democratic Institutions
These items were taken from the World Values Survey.
Participants indicated how confident they are (1-5) in the following
institutions:
1. Justice System / Courts
2. The Government
3. Congress
Cronbach’s alpha = 0.89
Support for change
Items used here (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/0032321719874362),
but also appears, in various forms, in other surveys (including the
WVS).
Participants indicated their agreement (1-7) with the following
items:
change_rad: The way this country works needs to be
radically changed.
change_grad: Our society must be gradually improved by
reforms.
change_def: Our present society must be valiantly
defended against all subversive forces.
“Values Met” scores
With participants’ indication of priorities for the US on paper,
their own ideal priorities, and the extent to which they believe the US
provides each of the values, we can create a weighted “values met” score
per participant per perspective.
What we’ll do is weigh every US In Practice score by the weight the
participant assigned to it and then take that weighted mean. So, for
each perspective, we’ll have a score of 0-100 that takes into account
what they believe they should get and what they believe they do
get.
I’ll leave the code visible for this next part:
df_valuesmet <- df_amd %>%
select(PID:security_practice) %>%
mutate(weighted_score = case_when(value == "capitalism" ~ weight*capitalism_practice/100,
value == "compassion" ~ weight*compassion_practice/100,
value == "equality" ~ weight*equality_practice/100,
value == "freedom" ~ weight*freedom_practice/100,
value == "happiness" ~ weight*happiness_practice/100,
value == "nationalpride" ~ weight*nationalpride_practice/100,
value == "progress" ~ weight*progress_practice/100,
value == "security" ~ weight*security_practice/100)) %>%
select(PID:type,weighted_score) %>%
group_by(PID,type) %>%
summarise(values_met = sum(weighted_score)) %>%
ungroup()
df_amd <- df_amd %>%
mutate(weighted_score = case_when(value == "capitalism" ~ weight*capitalism_practice/100,
value == "compassion" ~ weight*compassion_practice/100,
value == "equality" ~ weight*equality_practice/100,
value == "freedom" ~ weight*freedom_practice/100,
value == "happiness" ~ weight*happiness_practice/100,
value == "nationalpride" ~ weight*nationalpride_practice/100,
value == "progress" ~ weight*progress_practice/100,
value == "security" ~ weight*security_practice/100)) %>%
left_join(df_valuesmet,by = c("PID","type"))
Great, and now their distributions:
