European Values Survey Research Articles

Decision makers facing uncertainty: Theory versus evidence

This paper aims at assessing cultural differences in uncertainty attitude across Europe. We select questions from the European Values Survey (EVS) capturing salient features of uncertain scenarios (“safe versus uncertain”, “freedom of choice” and “reduction of uncertainty”), and formalize these questions through simple decision-theoretic problems. We then consider three competing normative models of choice under uncertainty (subjective expected utility (SEU), maximin utility and minimax regret), and analyze how they behave when facing each decision problem. We obtain theoretical predictions and, using the EVS dataset, we test them via latent class analysis to estimate the distribution of these behaviors across EU15. We find a larger proportion of SEU maximizers (Bayesians) in northern countries than in southern countries. The opposite is true for maximin utility behavior. Only a few are consistent with minimax regret behavior.

Political Cleavages and Socio-economic Context: How Welfare Regimes and Historical Divisions Shape Political Cleavages

The paper argues that despite significant changes taking place in the social structure of contemporary industrial societies and the weakening of links between parties and voters, structure and value-based divisions still count as a source of electoral behavior in advanced industrial societies. Furthermore, the way these divisions impact on the politics of Western European countries is affected by the characteristics of welfare regimes and the historical importance of cultural and economic divisions. Interaction of these two variables produces three configurations of cleavages. In the first configuration dominance belongs to economic cleavages. In the second configuration economic cleavages are supplanted by weaker cultural cleavages. In the third configuration cultural cleavages have a more important role than economic cleavages. The empirical analysis using European Value Survey data broadly supports these expectations and finds the presence of a link between welfare state characteristics and historical divisions on the one hand and value cleavages on the other.

Popular Explanations of Poverty in Europe

In this contribution we describe and explain the differences in popular poverty attributions that exist within and between 28 European countries. On the basis of the existing literature we distinguish five predictors: awareness of the existence of poverty, personal experience of disadvantage, personal values, socio-demographic background and structural and cultural country-level characteristics. Using data from the European Values Survey (EVS) 1999/2000, we assess for most of these predictors the extent to which they relate directly to people’s partial ranking of popular poverty attributions. The results of rank-ordered logistic regression models show that differences in popular poverty explanations relate directly to whether one lives in a country with a Catholic tradition and a high level of poverty, their (subjective) experience of disadvantage and personal values. Furthermore, we find that the size of the various associations depends on people’s particular choices of poverty explanations.

GENDER AND PUBLIC ATTITUDES TOWARD CORRUPTION AND TAX EVASION

The topics of corruption and tax evasion have attracted significant attention in the literature in recent years. We build on that literature by investigating empirically: (1) whether attitudes toward corruption and tax evasion vary systematically with gender and (2) whether gender differences decline as men and women face similar opportunities for illicit behavior. We use data on eight Western European countries from the World Values Survey and the European Values Survey. The results reveal significantly greater aversion to corruption and tax evasion among women. This holds across countries and time, and across numerous empirical specifications.(JELH260, D730, J160, Z130)

Religion and income: Heterogeneity between countries

This paper tests whether the behaviour of households in different countries is homogeneous with respect to the influence of religion on income. The violation of the homogeneity assumption would have two consequences. First, results based on country studies might not be applicable to other countries. Second, one should be careful when pooling cross-country data in this type of research. Data at household level from the European and World Values Survey are pooled for 25 western countries. We estimate simultaneously an income and a religion equation to correct for the endogeneity of religiousness. We find that estimation outcomes are different for low- and high-income countries: whereas church membership is found to have a positive effect on income for high-income countries, this effect is negative for low-income countries. This result is robust to denominational distribution, participation effects and alternative measures of religiousness.

Marriage, religion and human flourishing: how sustainable is the classic Durkheim thesis in contemporary Europe?

This paper draws on the three waves of the European Values Survey across five countries (Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Spain and Sweden) to investigate the relationship between indicators of positive psychology (conceptualised as feelings of happiness and satisfaction with life), religiosity (conceptualised as self-assigned religious affiliation and self-reported religious attendance) and marital status. The results demonstrate that religiosity is, in general, positively correlated with both indicators of positive psychology. Further, across all waves and all countries, the pattern emerges that those respondents who are married are likely to report higher levels of happiness and greater satisfaction in life. These data provide contemporary support for the classic Durkheim thesis linking the two institutions of marriage and religion with human flourishing.

Parental Mediation Of Children's Internet Use In Different European Countries

Given that various childrearing cultures exist in Europe, as confirmed by analysis of the 1999/2000 European Values Survey (Halman, 2001), the present study aimed to identify and explain cross-cultural similarities and differences in strategies of parental mediation of children's Internet use. The study also sought to identify which parental mediation strategies may protect children against experiencing content risks online in general and in various childrearing cultures in particular. Parental mediation strategies and content online risk were indexed on the basis of data from 18 European countries from the Eurobarometer 2005. Findings show that all parents favor social mediation of the internet for children over strategies based on technical solutions. Favoring restrictive (by time or content) to non-restrictive mediation depends on a country's value orientation in childrearing. Analyses showed that each parental strategy has the potential to reduce the probability of children's experience of content risk online. However, the extent to which particular parental mediation strategies are protective differs across European childrearing cultures.

Changing patterns of religious affiliation, church attendance and marriage across five areas of Europe since the early 1980s: trends and associations

This study draws on three waves of the European Values Survey (conducted between 1981 and 1984, between 1989 and 1993, and between 1999 and 2004) across five countries for which full data are available (Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Spain, and Sweden) in order to address five research questions. Question one examined changes in religious affiliation. Across all five countries, the proportions of the non‐affiliated increased. Question two examined changes in church attendance. Across all five countries, the proportions of the non‐attenders increased. Question three examined changes in marital status. Across all five countries the proportions of the population checking the category ‘married’ declined, although in Spain the decline was marginal. Question four examined the association between religious affiliation and being married. The religious affiliated were more likely to be married than the non‐affiliated. Question five examined the association between church attendance and being married. Weekly attenders were more likely to be married than the non‐attenders. Overall these data support the close association between religion and marriage across five European countries (where there are very different religious climates) and support the hypothesis that changing religious values and changing family values go hand‐in‐hand.

Distributive justice: an ordering of priorities. A comparative analysis of European opinions

As far as distributive justice is concerned, an important issue is to know whether the different principles by which a given distribution of goods is judged fair or unfair are exclusive or complementary. The European Values Survey carried out in 1999 shows clearly the priorities of Europeans in this matter. The first concerns the guarantee that ‘basic needs are met for all’, then comes ‘recognizing people on their merits’ and finally ‘eliminating big inequalities in income’. The consensus on this hierarchy is not altered by national, demographical, social, economic or political divisions. These different divisions do indeed influence opinions on each criterion, but, with very few exceptions, they are not sufficient to upset this order of priorities. Thus, the usual applied principles of distributive justice do not define competing spheres. Their nested (or ‘lexical’) order is compatible with the purely procedural condition of ‘equal liberty’.

La mesure de l'appartenance et de la non-appartenance confessionnelle dans les grandes enquêtes européennes

L'auteur examine les grandes enquêtes européennes portant sur les questions sociales et politiques—en particulier la European Values Survey (EVS), l'International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), la European Social Survey (ESS)—pour y observer comment l'appartenance et la non-appartenance religieuses sont mesurées. Les questions sont-elles similaires d'une enquête à l'autre? Les mesures obtenues les mêmes années avec ces différents outils sont-elles identiques? L'auteur présente les différentes enquêtes disponibles, mais observe aussi les effets de formulation de la question. Il s'interroge aussi sur la fiabilité des réponses (y a-t-il des biais de “désirabilité sociale”?) et souligne, enfin, que ces données très simples permettent d'effectuer des analyses complexes, notamment de repérer des catégories paradoxales, comme celles des “croyants sans appartenance” et des “membres sans croyance”, et de dresser des profils assez complets d'attitudes spécifiques à chaque groupe appartenant et/ou croyant.

Religion and Gender across Europe

European societies have experienced a decrease in the social importance of religious issues. Values and attitudes towards gender roles have also changed in the last decades. In European countries, people have become more egalitarian with respect to the position of women in society. The author tries to identify the relationship between secularization and changes in gender values. As a result of secularization, the individual value system has become fragmented and religious values have lost their coordinating role. The investigation employs cross-national and longitudinal analysis of European Values Survey data (1990, 1999), most of the European countries being included in the study. The results indicate the decreasing impact of traditional religious belief on values related to gender roles during the 1990s in Europe and a common pattern of relationships between gender values and religiosity in most European societies.

Happiness, freedom and control

How do people value freedom of choice? Drawing on economics and psychology the paper provides an hypothesis and empirical evidence on how individuals may value freedom of choice and derive utility from it. It is argued that the degree of perceived control that individuals have over choice – a construct known as the locus of control in psychology – regulates how we value freedom of choice. People who believe that the outcome of their actions depends on internal factors such as effort and skills (the ‘internals’) have a greater appreciation of freedom of choice than people who believe that the outcome of their actions depends on external factors such as fate or destiny (the ‘externals’). We find some evidence in support of this hypothesis using a combination of all rounds of the World and European Values Surveys. A variable that measures freedom of choice and the locus of control is found to predict life satisfaction better than any other known factor such as health, employment, income, marriage or religion, across countries and within countries. We show that this variable is not a proxy of happiness and measures well both freedom of choice and the locus of control. ‘Internals’ are found to appreciate freedom of choice more than ‘externals’ and to be happier. These findings have important implications for individual utility, social welfare and public policies.

Environmental and Pro-Social Norms: Evidence on Littering

Abstract The paper investigates the relationship between pro-social norms and its implications for improved environmental outcomes. This is an area, which has been neglected in the environmental economics literature. We provide empirical evidence to demonstrate a small but significant positive impact between perceived environmental cooperation (reduced public littering) and increased voluntary environmental morale. For this purpose we use European Values Survey (EVS) data for 30 European countries. We also demonstrate that Western European countries are more sensitive to perceived environmental cooperation than the public in Eastern Europe. Interestingly, the results also demonstrate that environmental morale is strongly correlated with several socio-economic and environmental variables. Several robustness tests are conducted to check the validity of the results.

Happiness, Freedom and Control

Does freedom of choice have an intrinsic value for people and how do people value freedom of choice? Drawing on economics and social psychology the paper provides a theory and empirical evidence of how individuals may value freedom of choice and derive utility from it. It is argued that the degree of control that we think we have over choice regulates how we value freedom of choice and that each individual faces a freedom `threshold' beyond which more freedom turns into disutility. We find strong evidence in support of this hypothesis. Making use of a combination of all rounds of the World and European Values Surveys we find a variable that measures freedom and control to be the best predictor of life satisfaction worldwide. This variable predicts life satisfaction better than any other known factors such as employment, income or marriage in every country and across countries. A test shows that this variable is not a proxy of life satisfaction and that measures well both freedom and control. The implications of this finding for economics range from utility and choice theory to public policies.

Volunteering and the State

This paper explores the capability of the state to affect the individual's decision to work for free. For this purpose we combine individual-level data from the European and World Values Survey with macroeconomic and political variables for OECD member countries. Empirically we identify three channels for crowding out of voluntary labor. Firstly, an increase in public social expenditure decreases the probability that the individual will volunteer (fiscal crowding out). Secondly, a political consensus between individuals and the government also induces volunteers to reduce their unsalaried activities (consensual crowding out). And finally, the more a government supports democratization, the lower is the individual's engagement (participatory crowding out). Religiosity and a more unequal income distribution in a country increase individuals' willingness to volunteer.

A clash of civilizations? Examining liberal‐democratic values in Turkey and the European Union1

Turkey's proposed entry into the European Union (EU) has been undermined by Europeans' perceptions of Turkish-European cultural differences, particularly regarding the liberal-democratic values that the EU promotes (democracy, rule of law, and respect for and appreciation of minority/human rights). Yet, cross-national research on values has not focused on Turkey, the EU, and these liberal-democratic values, leaving assumptions of cultural differences and their explanations untested. Through analyses of World and European Values Survey data (1999-2002), this article asks whether people in Turkey have the same values regarding democracy, rule of law (versus religious and authoritarian rule), and minority/human rights as people in EU member and candidate states (as of 2000)? What factors explain these values? I find that people in Turkey support democracy to the same extent as people in EU member and candidate states, but people in Turkey are more supportive of religious and authoritarian rule and are less tolerant of minorities. Although the 'clash of civilizations' thesis expects liberal values to be ordered according to countries' religious traditions, with western Christian the most supportive and Islamic the least, only for tolerance of minorities values is this pattern found. Instead, economic development most consistently explains differences between Turkey and EU member and candidate states in support for these values. I conclude with calls for theoretical refinement, particularly of the clash of civilizations thesis, along with suggestions for future research to examine more Muslim and Orthodox countries; I discuss the debate over Turkey's EU entry.

Cultural Distance and the US Immigrant–Trade Link

Using data from the World and the European Values Surveys, we calculate cultural distances between the US and 54 immigrant home countries and examine the influences of cultural distance and immigrant populations on US imports from and exports to immigrants’ home countries during the years 1997–2004. Our study indicates that, for both US imports and exports, the trade‐enhancing effect of immigrants partially offsets the trade‐inhibiting effect of cultural distance. Further, decomposing our measure of cultural distance into two component dimensions and revisiting the immigrant–trade relationship, we find significant variation in the extent to which immigrants counter the trade‐inhibiting influences of the underlying dimensions of culture for both US imports and exports. Our findings have the implication that by countering the trade‐inhibiting influences of cultural differences between their home and host countries, immigrants exert pro‐development effects.

Justifiability of Littering: An Empirical Investigation

The paper investigates the relationship between environmental participation and littering. Previous empirical work in the area of littering is scarce as is evidence regarding the determinants of littering behavior. We address these deficiencies, demonstrating a strong empirical link between environmental participation and reduced public littering using European Values Survey (EVS) data for 30 Western and Eastern European countries. The results suggest that membership in environmental organizations strengthens commitment to anti-littering behaviour, thereby supporting improved environmental quality.

Ціннісні орієнтації українського суспільства: 1996 – 1999 – 2006 рр.

The author presents the comparative results of studies of the system of value, involved orientations of the population in the frame of the international studi` es “World Values Survey” (1996, 2006) and “European Values Survey” (1999).

Spiritual Values, Religious Practices, and Democratic Attitudes

AbstractUsing data from the 1999–2001 World Values and European Values Surveys, this article examines the impact of spiritual values and religious practices on democratic attitudes in twenty countries throughout Western Europe, North America, South America, Asia, and Africa. I assume that a reciprocal interaction between national conditions and individual orientations shapes support for democracy. Religious commitment as theological orthodoxy and attendance at religious services does not strengthen democratic views. Instead, explicitly political and cultural variables explain approval for democratic principles, particularly among industrialized countries. Individuals who express a low fear of threatening groups also back democratic institutions, regardless of a nation's industrialization. Among religious affiliations, Protestants in developing countries advocate democratic values. So do Muslims in industrialized countries. Nonmembers of religious institutions, however, are less likely to uphold democratic attitudes.