Attitudinal correlates of national wealth

Abstract

Over 14,000 young people from 42 countries on all five continents completed validated questionnaires measuring the work ethic, achievement motivation, competitiveness and attitudes toward money and saving. The data was collected by Lynn in the late 1980s and these sources were related on a country basis to recent economic figures. Attitudes regarding competitiveness, money and savings were clearly and logically related to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) showing that subjects from poorer countries were more competitive, more concerned about money and more concerned about saving for the future. Cooperativeness alone accounted for nearly 40% of the variance in predicting the Human Development Index (HDI) which is regarded as a better measure than the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). A cluster analysis based on the attitudinal measures revealed two clusters, one of 20 countries high on achievement, mastery, money attitudes and saving and the other of 21 countries lower on these variables. The two clusters were compared on other economic variables, the cluster scoring lower on these attitudinal variables had a higher GDP per head, a higher HDI, fewer people per household and a higher cost of living.