Self-interest versus sociotropic considerations: an information-based perspective to understanding individuals’ trade preferences

Figures & data

Figure 1. Overview of informational scenarios and predictions from the theoretical argument.

Table 1. Overview of treatments.

Sociotropic treatments	Positive	Country profits from free trade due to economic growth and potentially due to less unemployment
	Negative	Country loses from trade because it becomes more susceptible to the economic problems of other countries that could have spill-over effects on own country
	Control	International trade has increased over the last years
Egocentric treatments	Positive	The specific sector (in which the individual works) profits from free trade, consequences are: jobs not offshored and more revenue
	Negative	The specific sector loses from free trade, consequences are: jobs being offshored and less revenue
	Control	No additional information

Table 2. Overview of response pattern by treatment.

		Ego positive (%)	Ego negative (%)	Socio positive (%)	Socio Negative (%)	Ego positive +Socio positive (%)	Ego positive +Socio negative (%)	Ego negative + Socio positive (%)	Ego negative +Socio negative (%)	Control (%)
Trade individual	Good	66	47	68	68	68	65	55	39	68
	Bad	34	53	32	32	32	35	45	61	32
Trade country	Good	78	63	77	76	78	71	66	57	80
	Bad	22	37	23	24	22	29	34	43	20

Figure 2. General results with sector-based globalization winners/losers.

Figure 3. Results split according to the level of education.

Table 3. Main findings on informational scenarios.

	Ego	Socio
H1: Information has an effect on support for trade	Partly supported: negative priming lowers support for international trade	Not supported
H2: Conflicting information leads to ego trumping socio	Partly supported: negative ego-information overrides a positive socio-information. No significant difference for positive ego and negative socio information
H3: Concordant information is indistinguishable from ego-only treatment	Partly supported: negative priming lowers support. Additional country-level information in the same direction as ego-only treatment amplifies the negative effect, but not significantly

Figure 4. The results for respondents without any egocentric priming.