Tobias Heide-Jørgensen defends his PhD thesis at the Department of Political Science

The dissertation examines the conditions under which citizens’ political preferences are shaped by their material self-interest in contrast to broader ideological principles. Based on a critique of the notion that self-interest and political ideology are mutually exclusive explanations of public opinion, the main argument of the dissertation is that both values and interests are present in people’s mind when they form political attitudes but that the strength of each motive varies systematically across individuals and contexts. Using survey and registry data and causal research designs, this argument is tested in five research articles. The articles show, among other things, that the influence of self-interest and ideology on people’s political attitudes depends on individuals’ personality, election outcomes, political socialization when people migrate, and social norms of fairness and cooperation.

Overall, the dissertation contributes theoretically by rethinking how political attitudes relate to self-interest and ideology, bringing in context and individual differences. Empirically, the dissertation provides evidence on the timing and conditions under which these motives are important for attitude formation, and when they are less so.