A Study of Selfish Individualism and Its Related Factors among Shiraz University Students (With a Focus on their Class)

People’s orientation towards meeting their own needs and achieving their personal and private goals, without considering other people, is called egocentrism and individualism. Selfish individualism is a type of individualism in which the person’s personal gain is put as the top priority, and individuals are only seeking to reach their own goals. The purpose of this study is to examine the level of selfish individualism among different social classes and its related factors. For this purpose, the students of Shiraz University were chosen as the statistical population. The study was conducted through stratified sampling, and through a survey using a questionnaire, the study was conducted with a sample comprised of 387 people. The independent variables of the research were derived from Durkheim, Putnam, and Bourdieu’s theories and also from a combination of Habermas, Weber, and Weblen’s theories. Durkheim’s Religiosity, Putnam’s Social Capital, Bourdieu’s Institutionalized Cultural Capital of the family, and a combined theory of Class from Habermas, Weber and Weblen were used. There was a negative and significant relationship between religiosity and selfish individualism, and the hypothesis was confirmed. However, there was not a significant relationship between selfish individualism and the three variables of social capital, institutionalized cultural capital of the family and class, and the three remaining hypotheses were dismissed. Findings regarding background variables showed that there was not a significant relationship between gender and selfish individualism, however, there was a significant and positive relationship between age and selfish individualism.