World Values Survey Data Research Articles

Regional inequalities and political trust in a global context

ABSTRACT Climate change, health pandemics, structural decline, and more – the challenges of solving political problems are daunting, particularly when the political institutions addressing them are not trusted. This article tests the economic theory that residents of high-income regions are more likely to trust political institutions, given their positive experiences with services and opportunities, against the rival argument that predicts a negative effect of regional disadvantage within a country on political trust. Using European Values Study and World Values Survey (2017–2020) data, combined with socioeconomic data for 606 regions in 42 countries, this paper analyses samples of regions both in and outside the EU. The results suggest that people living in wealthy EU regions – both in absolute and relative terms – trust national government more and the EU less. In the global sample, the evidence is more variegated and corroborates economic theory only in democracies. The article sketches implications for regional inequality, political trust, and legitimacy research.

Liberalism and illiberalism in Myanmar’s National League for Democracy

The National League for Democracy (NLD) was largely synonymous with Myanmar’s semi-democratic intermezzo in 2016–21. For 2 years after the military coup in 2021, it resumed the role of major opposition party performed from 1988 to 2015. Although it was dissolved by the military junta in 2023, it remains a dominant political force inside the country. This article examines the commitment of NLD leaders and voters to liberal agendas. It reviews existing literature, draws on our dataset of Facebook posts by NLD members of parliament, analyses our 2017 survey, and triangulates it with 2020 World Values Survey data. It argues that the NLD was a relatively liberal force in Myanmar’s democratisation in the 2010s, though its liberal commitments were coupled with rising illiberal values. It is thus possible that even if the NLD were reconstituted and re-elected under a future democratic settlement, that democracy would not be liberal.

INVESTIGATION OF TURKIYE S PERSPECTIVE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY BY COUNTRY WITH MULTIVARIABLE STATISTICAL TECHNIQUES

Purpose- Understanding the perspective of developing Turkey towards science and technology, as well as its position compared to other countries, is of great importance for its potential positive changes in this field in the coming years. The aim is to examine Turkey's outlook on science and technology and its position among 57 countries, based on six variables: living standards, future generations, faith, impact on understanding, daily life, and global influence, which are associated with the perspective on science and technology using data from the World Values Survey (WVS). Methodology- This study aimed to determine Turkey's position among 57 countries based on six variables associated with the perspective on science and technology, as indicated in the World Values Survey (WVS) data from 2017-2022. The study data were obtained through survey methods, and the relevant data for analysis were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 20 software. Cluster analysis, a multivariate analysis method, was employed to test the research model constructed based on the literature. Findings- According to the results of the study, Turkey is positioned as a rapidly developing or emerging country among the world nations. Based on the cluster analysis of the survey responses conducted by WVS between 2017 and 2022, the cluster structure in which Turkey is included was examined, leading to the conclusion that the support provided by the economy in order for Turkey to make progress in science and technology is not sufficient. This observation is evident from Turkey being grouped together with other developing countries. Conclusion- Based on the analysis results, it has been observed that Turkey is grouped together with developing countries. It has been concluded that the support provided by the economy for Turkey to make progress in science and technology is not sufficient. Despite Turkey's economic strength, being a developing country requires allocating a significant amount of resources for development. Especially since the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared the COVID-19 pandemic on March 11, 2020, countries have focused on improving and supporting healthcare policies to control the outbreak. It is possible that this situation has not significantly altered Turkey's perspective on science and technology compared to previous periods, as indicated by previous research findings. Therefore, Turkey's advancements and efforts in the field of economy alone will not be sufficient for the development of science and technology. In this era of rapid technological advancements, where everything is changing, it is important to enhance scientific publications, individual awareness, and accessibility to scientific data in order to accelerate development. This can contribute to advancing Turkey's perspective on science and technology. Keywords: Science, technology, perspective, multivariate statistics, cluster analysis JEL Codes: C38, C30, Q55

Should activism be treated as an indicator of attitudes towards political violence?

Multiple contemporary meta-analyses pointed out activism as one of the risk factors for engagement in political violence, which is in line with the early radicalization models. However, others pointed out that joining activist organizations could prevent individuals from conducting violent acts. This study attempted to empirically evaluate whether activism should be treated as a risk factor using a large international World Value Survey data set and controlling for support for family violence. The initial outcomes have confirmed that activists tend to hold more positive attitudes towards political violence than non-activists. However, this relationship lost practical significance when the support for family violence was included in the model, which was replicated across different political regimes and contexts. Although such results do not support the notion of activists exhibiting more positive attitudes towards political violence, they also do not imply that their attitudes towards political violence are more negative compared to non-activists. Therefore, without knowing more about the specific social issue and context in which it had developed, conclusions regarding one’s attitudes towards political violence based only on his or her history of activism seem to be negligibly more correct than random guessing.

THE IMPACT OF UNIONIZATION IN THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR: FARMER PERCEPTIONS AND BEHAVIOR

For centuries, agriculture has been one of the vital sectors in economic development; its role in developing economies and rural development is still inevitable. Rising food and energy prices and the negative effects of climate change can be more problematic for middle-smallholder farmers or family enterprises and low-qualified farmworkers. To overcome them, unionization and cooperatives in agriculture may present a viable option. Unionization in agriculture can be a solution for vulnerable parts of agriculture, such as workers who are exploited by working cheap and long hours and small and family businesses in a market where cooperatives are disrupted. This study focuses on the impact of unionization in the agricultural market by exploring farmer behavior. World Values Survey Data (Wave 7) was applied to reveal the factors affecting farmers' perception of the economic and social factors from different countries by segmenting union members and non-members using binomial logistic regression models. The findings show that unionized farmers have different motivations than non-members. Income targeting policies are essential to support agri-business owners.

Pension Tension: Retirement Annuity Fosters Ageism Across Countries and Cultures.

Globally aging populations raise worldwide concerns about how an older population will be valued. Cross-culturally, many espouse that Eastern cultures revere their older adults more than Westerners, due to stronger collectivism and filial piety traditions. In contrast, this paper proposes a resource tension hypothesis, whereby rapid population aging causes pragmatic strain across all modernized societies, fostering ageism. Three studies supported this resource tension hypothesis, focusing on the pragmatic role of public pensions-a fundamental resource inherently pitting older versus younger generations-in fostering ageism. Study 1 tested the relationship between nation-level public pension rate and attitudes toward older adults by using World Values Survey and European Social Survey data sets. Study 2 further explored this relationship via priming both the pension-based resource scarcity and the intergenerational competition over the public pension. Study 3 offered an intervention-future-self-thinking via a photo ager-on reducing intergenerational tensions under pension scarcity conditions. Study 1 found a significant link between nation-level public pension rate and negative older adult attitudes across 39,700 World Values Survey, and 29,797 European Social Survey data points. Study 2 further supported the pension-ageism link via experimental methods. Participants who were reminded of the scarcity of pensions and intergenerational competition exhibited more negative attitudes toward older adults. Study 3 confirmed the effect of the future-self intervention on enhancing attitudes toward older adults even despite scarce pension resources. The findings support a resource explanation in driving perceptions of older adults, implicate pensions as a key mechanism driving intergenerational attitudes, and identify future-self thinking as a critical intervention. The present studies open up new research pathways for understanding and accommodating the globally aging population.

How Are Populist Attitudes Activated? Understanding Revolutionary Mobilization in Kyrgyzstan

Abstract Populist mobilization may take different forms. It can be either revolutionary, through social movements, or electoral, through political parties, but is often a mixture of both under the leadership of a populist persona. The October Revolution in Kyrgyzstan provides an opportunity to look beyond classical cases of populist mobilization in Europe and the Americas to uncover key factors that cause existing populist attitudes to become activated and mobilized. Political science literature points to the root causes of populist uprisings as coming from either the supply-side perspective, meaning populist rhetoric and institutional conditions that induce the appearance of populist parties, or the demand-side perspective, meaning individual attitudes that predict support for populists. These theories of populism may do well at explaining American or European varieties of populist mobilization, but they fail to capture Kyrgyzstan’s experience. Thus, drawing on ideational theory that emphasizes the interplay between populist attitudes, elite rhetoric, and contextual factors, this study employs World Values Survey (WVS) data from 2003, 2011, and 2020—three pivotal pre-revolutionary or post-revolutionary periods. This allows for the investigation of not only the changes in attitudes but also crucial contextual factors that determined the outcome of the October Revolution. The findings show that, on the demand-side, populist ideas have always been widespread, but required specific material conditions, including explosive corruption scandals and the COVID-19 crisis, and populist cues from the supply-side to become activated.

An international examination of the role of normative and cultural contexts on attitudinal support for intimate partner violence against wives

This study analyzes World Values Survey data ( individual N = 63,307; country N = 53) to examine individual and national factors that shape attitudinal support toward men’s physical violence against their wives. We assess how the national context conditions direct individual-level effects. Greater national support toward this form of intimate partner violence exerts a positive effect on individuals’ supportive intimate partner violence attitudes. Cultural orientations affect supportive intimate partner violence attitudes, but the direction depends on whether they are measured at the individual (negative effect) or national level (positive effect). Cross-level interactions reveal that national context moderates individual-level effects between cultural orientation and egalitarian gender attitudes with intimate partner violence supportive attitudes.

Perception of human rights, law enforcement interference and justifiability of terrorism: a Cross-National Analysis

ABSTRACT This paper seeks to understand how subjective perceptions of human rights influence the justifiability of terrorism at the individual level, net of individual and country-level controls. Utilizing the seventh wave of World Values Survey data and 65,668 respondents from 52 countries, this study finds those who report greater interference in their lives from security agents and those who see the country as being run more democratically are more likely to find terrorism justified, while those who perceive less respect for human rights are less likely to do so. The effect of state terror on the justifiability of terrorism is moderated by perceived democracy, with those perceiving the country as being run more democratically being more likely to find terrorism justified when state terror is high.

THE CONTRADICTORY EFFECTS OF DIGITAL ACCESS AND LIFE SATISFACTION ON VOTING BEHAVIOURS: A RETROSPECTIVE LOOK AT THE 2008 MALAYSIAN GENERAL ELECTION

This paper explores the relationship between life satisfaction and voting intention by analysing the 2008 General Election in Malaysia. The election was significant because of the high turnout rate since 1964 and the rise of digital media in political communication. The latter leads to the second objective of this paper: to investigate whether the presence of digital media reshapes voting behaviours across different levels of life satisfaction. Using the 6th wave of World Value Survey data of 1198 respondents with the Hierarchical Linear Regression Modelling, we show that unhappier voters are more likely to vote. However, by democratising access to information and lowering barriers to connect with voters via digital media, voting intention is levelled irrespective of the degree of life satisfaction. While happier voters pay more attention to the social economic issues and thus are more likely to react to news disseminated via digital media by voting, it is equally likely that unhappier voters provoked by negative news through digital media have greater intention to voice out by casting a vote too.

A Holistic Approach towards Divinity in the World

Man is the center of the universe and seeks excellence in all spheres of life, including economic, social, political, and behavioral aspects. A human being is made of soul and body. Both components have their own levels of excellence. This excellence can be achieved for both through observing values and principles guided by faith, religion, and moral values. Collectively, the set of values of religion, ethics, spirituality, and morality yields a form of a non-material capital termed as Divine Capital (DC). DC can be acquired through knowledge and practice of religion. The objective of the study is to measure the DC index for the countries and then visualize the difference over the time through spatial analysis using World Values Survey data set of waves 1-7. The study finds that the level of DC declines moving from wave 1 to 7 and ranges from a low to a medium level in world countries. However, in regions DC is higher in the Asian region, followed by the African, American, and European continents.

The dynamic effects of religion: An exploration of religiosity influences on Islamic work ethic over time

As a country with the biggest Muslim population in the world, Indonesia is a fascinating avenue to conduct studies about Muslim behavior, including in the workplace context. The present study focuses on exploring religiosity’s effect on Islamic work ethic (IWE). Using the 5th and the 7th waves of World Values Survey (WVS) data, in total this study processes 2474 Indonesian Muslim respondents’ data. Among the notable findings is that religiosity has a dynamic effect on IWE. Religiosity is found to positively and significantly influence IWE in the 5th wave (2006) but the significant influence is no longer found in the 7th wave (2018). The authors argue that globalization, secularism, and the new way Muslims learn their religion may be the source of these dynamics. While religiosity does not influence IWE in contemporary times, the authors propose national culture and macroeconomic factors as the prospective factors driving individuals’ IWE. The present study is arguably among the first studies to comprehensively explore IWE as a multidimensional construct, involving both micro (individual-as being represented by religiosity) and macro (societal) perspectives to bring about IWE’s discourses. Additionally, the time-series data this study employed also offer a rich discussion on how religiosity influences (or does not influence) individuals’ IWE.

Does Public Sector Employment Matter for Subjective Well-being?: The Case of Kazakhstan

ABSTRACT Studies of subjective well-being (SWB) have increased in recent years. However, there is limited information on how employment in the public sector affects SWB. Using representative World Values Survey (WVS) data from Kazakhstan, this study analyzes how working in the public sector affects SWB and whether financial satisfaction mediates this relationship. The findings demonstrate that although a positive relationship exists between working in the public sector and financial satisfaction, working in the public sector does not affect SWB. In other words, public sector employment does not matter for SWB, although it matters for financial satisfaction. These findings offer insights into studies of SWB, particularly for less studied contexts, such as Central Asia.

Stalled and uneven? A hierarchical age-period-cohort analysis of gender attitudes in the public sphere in China 1995–2018

This study investigates gender attitudes in the public sphere in China from 1995 to 2018 using World Values Survey data. Although overall support for gender equality in the public sphere has been stable, gender attitudes in the constituent domains of work, politics, and education differ from one another and over time. Egalitarianism is highest in education, while attitudes in the domain of work are on a trajectory to become more egalitarian than in politics. To identify what factors contribute to attitudinal change the Hierarchical Age-Period-Cohort (HAPC) model is used. Age effects are always significant, and there is a U-shaped relationship between age and egalitarianism. Period effects are moderately significant and cohort effects are less statistically significant. Higher education levels are associated with higher levels of gender egalitarianism for women than for men. While rural residency is associated with less egalitarian gender attitudes, rural residency for women is associated with more egalitarian attitudes than for men. These results suggest that an age-, domain- and gender-specific approach is helpful to understand gender attitudes in the public sphere in modern China.

State Support for Religion and Government Legitimacy in Christian-Majority Countries

Most assume that when governments support a religion, they do so in the hope that they will increase their legitimacy. However, a growing literature implies that support for religion may decrease a government’s legitimacy for three reasons. First, political secularism, an ideology mandating the separation of religion and state or state restrictions on religion, is increasingly popular. Second, state support for religion can undermine religious vitality. Third, support for religion entails an element of government control over religion which can undermine the perceived authenticity of a religion. We test this support–legitimacy relationship in Christian-majority countries from 1990 to 2014 using the Religion and State and World Values Survey data, comprising 54 countries and 126 country years. We find that state support for religion is associated with lower levels of individual confidence in government. We posit this has important implications for our understanding of the underpinnings of legitimacy.

Gains and losses under economic reform: Understanding individual experience and the preference for state intervention in transition China

ABSTRACT Chinese citizens lived under a state socialist regime with heavy state intervention from 1957 to 1978, after which time China began its market oriented economic reforms. This paper investigates whether personal experiences, particularly economic and political experiences are related to Chinese citizens’ preference for state intervention during the transition period. Based on the World Value Survey data collected between 2017 and 2018, I found that Chinese people who have experienced negative economic shocks since market reform are more likely to support government redistribution as opposed to economic liberalization. Individual attitudes toward the role of the state are also associated with experiences of affiliation with the state sector, and an instrumental variable analysis shows that state sector affiliation has a causal effect on redistribution preference. The findings contribute to studies of redistribution preference formation in a country where market forces and Communist Party rule coexist, as well as revealing how the primary political goal shapes the redistribution preference of individuals under an authoritarian regime.

Post-Materialism and Political Grievances: Implications for Protest Participation in Hong Kong

In recent decades, Hong Kong witnessed a number of protest movements that drew high levels of participation, most of which revolved around political issues. Why did ordinary citizens protest? What were the underlying factors that motivated Hongkongers to protest? We argue that post-materialism and grievances toward the government increase the selective expressive benefits for individuals to participate in protests. We illustrate that the two factors contribute to the protest movements in Hong Kong in general. Using the World Values Survey data, we found that post-materialism interacted with grievances toward the political system to increase Hongkongers’ propensity to protest. Our findings have important implications for the 2019 Anti-Extradition Law Movement in Hong Kong.

The Cross-cultural Structural Validity of the Big Five Personality Inventory (BFI-10) in a South African Sample

The study sought to assess the structural validity of the 10-item measure of the B5P instrument in the South African context. World Values Survey data, collected in South Africa (N = 3 531), were analysed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, to ascertain the factorial structure of the data, including across sub-groups, focusing on measurement invariance. The theorised factorial structure of the B5P survey did not mirror the theorised structure in the South African sample. This was demonstrated in the inspection report, as well as in the tests of measurement invariance. Even sub-groups, typifying the Westernised, educated, industrialised, wealthy, and democratic part of the South African society, did not provide structures that mirrored the theorised model. The assumption that well-established instruments are valid in settings, different to the one where they were initially developed in, should be questioned, and such instruments should not be used, unless thoroughly tested.

The Greening of the Global South? Analyzing World Values Survey and European Values Survey Data on Environmental Movements in 88 countries and territories from 2017-2021

The Greening of the Global South? Analyzing World Values Survey and European Values Survey Data on Environmental Movements in 88 countries and territories from 2017-2021

Don’t You Be My Neighbor! Perceptions of Homosexuality in Global Cross-Cultural Perspective, 1990 to 2019

The Authors draw on cognitive sociology and attribution theory to infer whether people classify homosexuality as an identity or a behavior. Using six waves of World Values Survey data covering 85 countries, the authors conduct factor and multilevel regression analyses to examine patterns of intolerance toward gay people alongside racialized groups, immigrants, and users of alcohol or illicit substances, in the context of who constitutes an undesirable neighbor. The authors examine changes in these patterns over time and variation across broad cultural zones. Evaluations of homosexuality tend to cluster with alcohol and substance use in non-Western societies, albeit less strongly over time, but with race and nativity among Western and Latin American publics. The authors suggest that homosexuality is widely perceived as an identity in Western and “West-adjacent” countries, whereas elsewhere it is more often understood in behavioral terms. Over time, homosexuality is increasingly interpreted as an identity trait rather than a deviant behavior.