RAPID: Long-term Unemployment and Individualist Values

本研究的重点是个人经历对核心价值观的影响。核心价值观被认为提供了一个稳定的基础，强烈影响人们对公共政策的态度。个人主义和平等等价值观被认为是在生命早期就确定了的，并且相对不易改变。然而，一个重要的问题是，当人们的个人经历挑战这些价值观的核心信念时，他们的价值观是否会改变。这个项目的智力价值集中在这样一个论点上，即对许多人产生重大影响的共同经历可以影响人们的核心信念和源自这些信念的价值观。这次经济衰退是自大萧条以来持续时间最长的一次，伴随着高失业率，失业超过6个月的人口比例也很高。2010年4月，美国劳工统计局（Bureau of Labor Statistics）报告称，超过48.1%的失业者失业时间超过6个月，这一数字明显高于最近几次经济衰退中的失业率。由于有如此多的人受到当前经济状况的影响，本项目考察了长期失业的个人情况，结合有关其他人失业的信息，是否降低了人们对美国政治中一个核心价值观——个人主义的信念的支持，“人们应该通过自己的努力工作获得成功的信念”（Feldman, 1988）。这项研究的更广泛的影响是创建了一个数据集，供有兴趣研究重要个人经历（失业）对政治态度影响的学者使用。

The focus of this study is the effect of personal experience on core values. Core values are thought to provide a stable foundation that strongly influences people's attitudes on public policy. Values, such as individualism and equality, are thought to be determined early in life and remain relatively resistant to change. Yet an important question concerns whether people's values change when their personal experiences challenge beliefs at the heart of these values. The intellectual merit of this project focuses on the argument that common experiences that affect many people in a significant way can influence people's core beliefs and the values that derive from those beliefs. The recent recession is the longest since the Great Depression, and the high unemployment rate is accompanied by a high proportion of people who have been unemployed for more than six months. In April 2010, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that over 48.1% of the unemployed have been out of work for more than six months, a figure significantly greater than the rates in recent recessions. With so many people affected by the current economic conditions, this project examines whether the personal circumstances of long-term unemployment, combined with information about other's unemployment, have reduced support for people's belief in one central core value in American politics, individualism, "the belief that people should get ahead on their own hard work" (Feldman, 1988). The broader impact of this study is to create a dataset that would be available to scholars interested in studying the impact of a significant personal experience, unemployment, on political attitudes.