Basic Human Values and Attitudes Towards a Universal Basic Income in Europe

This study contributes to the emerging literature on public opinion on a universal basic income (UBI) not only by investigating the role of basic human values in influencing support for UBI but also by examining the moderating role of welfare state development, which can be measured by levels of social protection or material deprivation, in the association between basic human values and UBI support. European Social Survey Round 8 (2016), which is a cross-national survey that asked respondents for the first time whether or not they support a UBI scheme, has the 21-item measure of human values that is based on the Schwartz (1992) theory of basic human values. Among the 10 basic human values, self-enhancement values (individual universalism and benevolence) form a bipolar dimension with self-transcendence values (power and achievement); these values are considered relevant in explaining attitudes towards UBI. The primary results of the multilevel analysis show that individual universalism is positively and significantly associated with support for UBI, while benevolence has a negative relationship; power and achievement are positively linked to support for UBI. Except for individual universalism, however, the other three values have unexpected relationships with UBI support. In addition, an interesting part of the findings is that the association between individual universalism and support for UBI is moderated by the level of welfare development expressed by social protection or material deprivation. That is, in advanced welfare states, people who are more inclined towards individual universalism are more likely to support UBI; by contrast, in underdeveloped welfare states, this relationship is not apparent.<br>