ABSTRACT
Individual preferences among core values are widely believed to be an important determinant of political
attitudes. However, several theoretical perspectives suggest that people cannot make meaningful choices
among values. This paper uses data from the 1994 Multi-Investigator Study to test for hierarchical
structure in citizens’ value preferences. The empirical results show that most people can make consistent
choices among values and that their value preferences have an impact on subsequent issue attitudes. To
the extent that citizens exhibit intransitive value choices and/or apparent difficulties in the “translation
process” from value preferences to issue attitudes, it is due more to low levels of political sophistication
than to the existence of value ambivalence.