Wartości podstawowe a preferencje ideologiczne i decyzje wyborcze w wyborach do Sejmu 2011
Basic personal values, political orientation and voting decisions in national election 2011

Summary/Abstract: Recently, researchers have shown an increased interest in examining the impact of individual characteristics of voters (personality traits, attitudes and personal values) on a political choice. The aim of this paper is to examine the relationships between voters' basic values, their political orientation and voting behavior in Polish national election in 2011. Personal values were treated as a cognitive representations of desirable, abstract goals. According to Schwartz's theory, there are 10 basic, universal values (power, achievement, hedonism, stimulation, self-direction, universalism, benevolence, tradition, conformity, and security), organized into four higher-level types (conservation, openness to change, self-transcendence and self-enhancement). To assess the participants' basic values, the Schwartz's Portrait Value Questionnaire was used. Comparisons between the groups of voters were made using the ANOVA method and the Tukey's post-hoc tests. The results of the study indicate that right-wing voters scored higher in tradition, conformity and benevolence and lower in self-direction, achievement, stimulation and hedonism than left-wing and centre voters. Voters' political party preferences were associated with distinct value profiles. According to the results of the research, voters' personal values can be important for understanding and predicting voting behavior.

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