A slightly different approach to the question of interests is provided by Saunders. Like Lukes, Saunders maintains that people's preferences are constrained from birth and therefore cannot be taken as an indication of real interests. Further, he argues that
ideological mechanisms shape the way in which people interpret and world, and serve to perpetuate and transmit a system of values and beliefs about that world. These mechanisms may be the result of domination by particular groups, and they may serve the interests of these groups, but "dominant ideologies reflect reflect (to some extent) the life experiences of all classes, and they make sense only because they are grounded in the form of life of the society as a on whole' (1980, pp. 55-6). It is this, rather than conscious manipulation, which makes ideology such a powerful force and which presumably lies behind Dahl's reference to the adherence by the community to a superficially self-imposed set of norms and goals. Within a dominant ideology, Saunders argues that real interests can be identified by estimating the costs and benefits accruing to various groups from particular social arrangements. This involves "a definition of interests which, while necessarily ultimately contestable, nevertheless rests on the assumption that real interests refer to the achievement of benefits and the avoidance of costs in a particular situation' (p. 45). Thus, according to this formulation, examining who gains and who loses in a specified community or society indicates those whose real interests are and are not met.