World Values Survey Research Articles

Cautious or marginalized? Perceptions of the riskiness of engaging in corruption and gender differences in corruptness

AbstractPrevious studies suggest that women are often perceived as less corrupt and more risk averse, possibly due to longstanding asymmetries in power and marginalization that reproduce certain gender stereotypes. However, much remains unclear regarding the origins of these perceptions. Why are some individuals and societies more prone to perceive women as less corrupt than men? We present the first cross‐country examination of these questions utilizing data from the latest wave of the World Values Survey, covering a total of 49 countries. Our results suggest that both perceived riskiness of corruption and attitude toward gender equality, in addition to the overall level of gender inequality in society, matter in explaining a stronger belief in gender differences in corruptness. However, the positive association between a higher perceived riskiness and the perception that women are less corrupt is mostly limited to societies with high levels of corruption and gender inequality.Related ArticlesCaillier, James. 2010. “Citizen Trust, Political Corruption, and Voting Behavior: Connecting the Dots.” Politics & Policy 38(5): 1015–35. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2010.00267.Malmberg, Fredrik G., and Henrik Serup Christensen. 2021. “Voting Women, Protesting Men: A Multilevel Analysis of Corruption, Gender, and Political Participation.” Politics & Policy 49(1): 126–61. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12393.Tusalem, Rollin F. 2022. “Does Gendered Representation in National Legislatures Promote Substantive Representation and Human Development? Evidence from the Developing World.” Politics & Policy 50(6): 1096–137. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12503.

Evolution of values in China: Disembedding factors and structural transformation

This study, guided by Taylor’s Great Disembedding Theory, examines global and Chinese societal values through the World Values Survey’s four-wave data from 1994 to 2014. Factor analysis shows six core values as disembedding factors (friends, leisure, politics) and embedding factors (family, work, religion). These data collected during China’s one-child policy and economic reforms reveal the country’s value shifts: leisure gains importance while politics is more moderate. This disembedding trend suggests a growing demand for social services driven by an emphasis on life balance. These evolving values guide social workers in tailoring programs to meet diverse needs shaped by personal and societal expectations.

Citizen Perceptions of Crime and Their Effect on Support for Illiberal Democratic Rule

In developing countries, perceptions of crime and actual crime victimization have been linked to less public support for democratic regimes. In countries with weak democratic institutions and limited horizontal accountability, populist presidents can exploit this situation by promoting vertical accountability. This vulnerability of democratic institutions arises because some citizens perceive strong-arm rule as a solution to the perceived increase in social violence. This study focuses on the Philippines, where president Rodrigo Duterte was elected in 2016 on a “law and order” platform centered on an extralegal war on drugs. Analyzing data from two waves of the World Values Survey, I find that perceptions of crime significantly influenced Filipino respondents’ support for authoritarian rule and reduced support for democracy based on civil liberties; the effect became more pronounced under the Duterte administration. Notably, actual crime victimization was not statistically correlated with preference for authoritarianism.

Sociocultural characteristics of consumer behavior among Japanese youth: From traditional paradigm to modern trends

This article analyzes a range of sociocultural aspects that influence the formation, development and dynamics of consumer behavior among youth in contemporary Japanese society. The authors note that, while the modern context (technology, media) influences the consumer behavior of Japanese youth, traditional values and orientations continue to have an impact on it. The theoretical and methodological foundation of the research is a comprehensive methodology based on Edward T. Hall’s theory of high-context and low-context cultures, which is applied to characterize the stage of decision-making in the purchase of various products. Additionally, a sociocultural approach was employed, allowing the analysis of consumer behavior aspects such as values, value orientations, behavioral stereotypes, motivations. This approach enabled a more in-depth understanding of the target audience’s needs and preferences, which, in the future, will facilitate the development of effective marketing strategies aligned with the cultural and social norms of consumers. To conduct a more detailed analysis of the brand communications effectiveness with the youth segment of the market, four international companies were selected, representing various approaches to interacting with the target audience: UNIQLO, Comme des Garçons (CDG), ZARA, and Louis Vuitton (LV). These brands were chosen based on their popularity among Japanese consumers according to one of the largest ranking websites, ranking.net. The authors then focused their attention on a thorough analysis of a vast amount of empirical data obtained from various sources, including data from diverse resources, including the report from the World Values Survey Association and news media. They analyzed social networking services (SNS) accounts and official websites of the aforementioned international trading companies. A distinctive feature of this study is the use of in-depth structured interviews with representatives of the Japanese youth, with a total of 11 participants, which allowed for the refinement of the research on certain aspects and the visualization of consumers’ attitudes towards the selected companies in the form of perception maps and word clouds.

Support for a Religious System in Turkey: A World Values Survey Analysis

Bu çalışma Türkiye’de dini bir yönetime hangi seçmen gruplarının destek verdiğini Dünya Değerler Araştırması verisi kullanarak incelemektedir. Cumhuriyetin ilk yıllarından beri dindar muhafazakârlar ve seküler gruplar arasındaki ayrışma bugün de hala devam etmektedir. İki grup arasındaki bu ayrışma daha önceden merkez-çevre teorisi ile açıklansa da yakın dönemde Türkiye siyasetinde yaşanan değişiklikler ile merkez ve çevre arasındaki ayırım bir kültür mücadelesine (kulturkampf) evirilmiştir. Çalışmamız, bu ayrışmanın temel aldığı değişkenler özelinde göstermektedir ki şehirde yaşayan, cinsiyet eşitliğine daha fazla destek veren veya Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi ile Millet İttifakını diğer partilere tercih eden katılımcılar dini yönetime daha az onay vermektedir. Bilime daha şüpheci yaklaşan, sol-sağ düzleminde kendini sağa yerleştiren veya Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi ile Cumhur İttifakını diğer partilere tercih eden seçmenler ise dini yönetime daha fazla destek vermektedir.

Guiltily indebted? How a word is linked to individual borrowing

ABSTRACT Using data from the World Values Survey, we show that individuals who speak a language in which the same word is used for both (financial) debt and (moral) guilt have a statistically significant and economically meaningful lower likelihood of borrowing money. This relationship holds even after controlling for a range of covariates, fixed effects, grammatical future tense reference, and the Germanic language family. Our results suggest that the synonymity of debt and guilt may be a hitherto overlooked aspect in explaining borrowing behaviour.

Happiness among subaltern groups: Dalits in India and blacks in South Africa

This study has two purposes; the first is to test differences between dominant and subordinate groups in India and South Africa. For India, the comparison is between caste groups: the dominant “forward castes” and the subordinate “non-forward castes”. For South Africa, the comparison is between racial groups: whites as a dominant group and non-Whites (Blacks, Coloured, and Asians) as a subordinate group. The second purpose of the study is to compare happiness levels between India and South Africa with a view to rigorously establishing where happiness is greatest and what its drivers are. These issues are examined using data from the World Values Survey (WVS). Covering in excess of 250,000 respondents drawn from 90 countries, and available for the period 1994–2014, WVS remains the most widely accessible database on well-being. This study establishes that, in general, Indians were happier than South Africans in this period, meaning that the predicted probability of being happy was, on average, higher in India (84.2%) than in South Africa (81.1%). Another important finding was that persons from the dominant groups were more likely to be happy in South Africa than in India but that persons from the subordinate groups were more likely to be happy in India than in South Africa.

The impact of far-right political orientation and cultural values on conservative attitudes toward life and death in Europe: a multilevel approach

Belief systems are core organizing factors of social attitudes and behaviors, and their study has highlighted the role of conservatism as a contributing mechanism in mitigating concerns associated with change avoidance, as well as the reduction of uncertainty and ambiguity in life. Moreover, these aspects seem to be consistently used as powerful tools in the political and social discourse of the far-right. Life and death ethics are an example of issues that deal with the need for stability and control over personal and social life that people endorsing conservative values seek to attain. There is a rich line of studies on the individual and social explanatory factors of political conservatism, but less attention has been dedicated to moral conservatism as an autonomous and meaningful concept. The current research follows a multilevel approach to disentangle the individual and contextual correlates of conservative attitudes toward life and death. Thus, besides looking at the influence of individual choices related to religion and political orientation, this study also seeks to analyse the impact of the context, introducing in the model variables measuring economic performance, social and gender inequality, religious diversity and the prevalence of materialism and post-materialism values. Multilevel models using data from the 34 countries that participated in the last wave of the European Values Study (2017–2020), revealed an association between far-right orientation and conservative attitudes toward life and death, and that this relationship is moderated by materialism/post-materialism values, economic performance, and social inequality. Our findings reinforce the role of democracy as an environment where freedom of choice and thought are indisputable rights, cherished by most of the populations, regardless of their political position or their stance on moral issues.

Chinese Entrepreneurs Preference in Income Redistribution Policy

This paper delves into an intriguing phenomenon: the low preference for income redistribution policies among Chinese entrepreneurs when compared to other employment statuses in China. Understanding this unique policy preference is crucial for policymakers aiming to implement effective socio-economic strategies. Drawing comprehensive insights from an array of existing studies and utilizing data from the World Value Survey (WVS), we proposed three hypotheses. These hypotheses were centered around entrepreneurs' education level, their attribution of success to effort or luck, and their inherent trust in the government, respectively.The WVS data supported two of these hypotheses. Firstly, entrepreneurs in China tend to hold the belief that success is mostly attributed to effort rather than serendipity. This belief affects their preference for redistribution policies. Secondly, among Chinese entrepreneurs, there is a lack of confidence in the government's in general, which may extend to their skepticism regarding the government's aptitude in overseeing fair income redistribution.

The volatility of survey measures of culture and its consequences

AbstractMeasures of cultural attitudes derived from the World Values Survey are often used in economics to investigate the relation between individual culture and aggregate output. We show (i) that these measures are constructed from underlying variables that exhibit within‐country volatility and time trends; and (ii) that such lack of persistence implies fragile correlations between cultural measures and output. These points are illustrated by revisiting prominent studies in this literature.

Exploring the role of female egalitarian values in the 2022 protests in Iran, using data from the World Values Survey

ABSTRACT Since the Iranian Revolution of 1979 there have been intermittent protests against the ruling regime over civil rights issues, with the 2022 protests often regarded as the most significant challenge to the status quo so far. These protests were perceived as being led by young women. For the first time, this study uses survey data to analyze why that should be. It investigates the evolving values of women in Iran with respect to gender equality, the impact of increased levels of female education and the adoption of new technologies that changed the way they socialized, to explain why young women led the protests. Using data from the World Values Surveys in Iran (in 2005 and 2020), and existing literature, it places this social conflict into the context of recent cultural changes in Iran. Specifically, it analyses data on the differing values and opinions of various segments of the population, by age and gender, and how they changed over time, to explore the influences that led to the protests and provide historical context as to why they occurred when they did.

SPIRITUALITY, RELIGIOSITY AND HAPPINESS: IDENTIFYING THE NEXUS

Using data from 52 countries in Wave 5 of the World Value Survey conducted during 2004 and 2008, we test two alternative approaches in spirituality measures. The first is based on the more traditional understanding that spirituality is associated with meanings, God, prayers/meditation and formal religions. The second is based on the common spiritual teachings of all the major religions that are summarized by the LIFE (Love, Insight or Wisdom, Fortitude and Engagement) framework proposed by Ho, LS (2014). Psychology and Economics of Happiness: Love, Life and Positive Living. Oxford: Routledge. It was found that this alternative approach, which focuses on the spiritual teachings rather than theology, offers better explanatory power for Total Life Satisfaction (TLS). An interesting finding is that under this specification the coefficient on meaning turned negative, suggesting that those whose lives are weak in Love, Insight, Fortitude and Engagement have yet to find meaning and are less happy. Through a series of stepwise regressions, we conclude that more spiritual people are indeed happier (H1); that religious people indeed tend to be happier mainly because religious people tend to be more spiritual (H2); that the essence of spirituality and meaning lies in Love, Insight, Fortitude and Engagement (H3). These virtues are all grounded on transcending the narrow self and on a “reverence for Life” as propounded by Schweitzer. Finally, religious attendance does promote happiness. The effect is small but stable and statistically significant. It may have to do with the social network this offers (H4).

ДҮНИЕЖҮЗІЛІК ҚҰНДЫЛЫҚТАРҒА ШОЛУ (ДҚШ): НЕГІЗГІ ЗЕРТТЕУ БАҒЫТТАРЫ ЖӘНЕ ҚАЗАҚСТАННАН МЫСАЛДАР

The World Values Survey (WVS) stands as a foundational tool in the study of global societal values, providing researchers with invaluable data to explore key research areas across diverse socio-political, economic, religious, and cultural contexts. This article presents an overview of the WVS and highlights its significance in shaping our understanding of societal values, attitudes, and beliefs worldwide. Drawing upon examples from Kazakhstan, a rapidly evolving society situated at the crossroads of Asia and Europe, this article illustrates how WVS data have been utilized to investigate a range of pressing social issues. Through a review of research articles by Kazakhstani authors, we explore themes such as public trust, value orientations, youth activities, family dynamics, gender equality, subjective well-being, political stability, and intergenerational value transmission. Additionally, we examine the methodological approaches employed, including literature review, cross-cultural comparison, sociological surveys, and statistical analyses. By elucidating the multifaceted applications of WVS data, this article underscores the WVS’s utility in fostering cross-national collaboration and advancing our understanding of societal dynamics in a rapidly changing world.

Does the relationship between competitiveness and student achievement vary based on the culture of competitiveness? Evidence from PISA 2018

This study joins an intense research debate regarding whether competition is beneficial for student outcomes, focusing on the relationships between student-level and school-level competitiveness and student academic achievement. I also examine the impact of country-specific competitiveness context on the relationships between competitiveness and student achievement. This study's assumptions and hypotheses were guided by theoretical tenets of Swab & Johnson's multilevel model of competition and competitiveness and the person-culture fit model. Using Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 data and World Values Survey (WVS) data from 57 countries, I analyzed three-level hierarchical linear models (HLM) with cross-level interactions to test these hypotheses. The results showed that student competitiveness was positively related to student achievement in mathematics within schools. Between schools, a competitive climate was positively correlated to student mathematics achievement. Cross-level interactions revealed country context positively moderated the relationship between student competitiveness and achievement. These findings emphasize the importance of considering broader cultural competitiveness contexts when examining the association between student competitiveness and achievement.

Capital institucional no meio rural: análise empírica de cooperativa no estado de São Paulo

We analyzed producers of the Cooperativa Agrária e de Cafeicultores da Região de Tupi Paulista, in the Escritório de Desenvolvimento Rural (EDR) of Dracena. The general goal: to understand the actors or values that may influence producers' decisions to be part of the cooperative. The specific objectives were to evaluate the importance of dairy income, education, institutional trust, willingness to work in groups, civic involvement and relationship between health and participation. The survey applied to 25 producers was based on the “World Values Surveys”. Dairy activity is the main activity for most; 80% has another source of income; more than 20% of the producers have jobs outside their farms. The sample was heterogeneous regarding the schooling. The Cooperative is inserted in an environment of social distrust; members do not participate in other organizations, except religious, they have low interest in political matters. No correlation between participation and self-assessment of health.

Socialization Values of Hard Work for Children: A Study on Parental Perception in the Rural-Urban Context of Bangladesh

This study attempts to examine the unfolding issue of whether and how parental preferences of hard work as the most important quality for their children differ in the rural-urban context of Bangladesh, as this issue is not much clear in the previous literature. The present study analyzed the data from the World Value Survey (WVS), wave-7 (2017-2022) of Bangladesh. Crosstab analysis with a chi-square test was used to clarify whether there is a significant distinction in parental choice among the items of socialization values for their children. Binary logistic regression was performed to determine the effect of parental class background and their residential area on the observed variable (hard work), and finally interaction effects between residential area and parental social class were measured. Results show that parents of rural regions less prefer the “importance of hard work” compared to parents who live in urban regions. Parents with low-level social background status usually prefer hard work for their children more compared to the parents with upper-level social class background status. Finally, according to the interaction effect of the residential region, it was observed that despite having a low level of class background status, parents who live in rural regions usually do not prefer hard work for their children like the parents of urban regions in Bangladesh.

Opinions on hard-to-discuss topics change more via cohort replacement.

Cohort replacement - the replacement in a population of older cohorts by their successors who developed under different conditions - is an important process behind cultural change. Research on public opinion indicates that a large proportion of aggregate change is the result of cohort replacement rather than of individuals changing their minds. However, some publicly salient issues, like gay rights, appear to be exceptions. Why different issues show different patterns of change is not well understood. In this paper, we investigate whether opinions on sensitive - that is, hard to discuss - issues might change differently than opinions on less sensitive issues. We use data from the 1981-2020 World Values Surveys and newly collected data on the sensitivity of survey items to compare aggregate changes in public opinion on 56 survey items in eight countries. Our key finding is that survey items on more sensitive issues seem to change more through cohort replacement.

Polarização e ideologia: explorando a natureza contextual do compromisso democrático

ABSTRACT Introduction: Political polarization stands as a pivotal topic in contemporary Political Science. Existing literature indicates that ideological extremism, prevalent in polarized environments, fosters the erosion of democratic norms by political elites. This phenomenon has primarily been explored through the examination of isolated cases or limited comparisons among a handful of highly polarized countries. This article investigates the role of “guardians of democracy”, questioning whether specific ideological groups maintain their commitment to democratic principles even amidst profound polarization. Materials and methods: Our analysis draws on public opinion data from 57 countries, encompassing over 77,000 respondents, sourced from the most recent wave of the World Values Survey (2017-2020). We explore the interaction between contextual and individual factors, investigating the impact of national-level polarization on individuals with varying ideological orientations and how the government's dominant ideology shapes individual responses to political polarization. Results: There is a negative relationship between polarization and democratic legitimacy. However, the impact varies depending on the ideology of the voters and their alignment with the ideology of the ruling party. Discussion: Our analysis suggests that the interaction between contextual factors (polarization and government ideology) and individual factors (voter ideology) creates scenarios that foster different profiles of guardians of democracy. However, none of these scenarios involved right-wing individuals presenting themselves as such.

Young People’s Confidence in the Media in Croatia Compared to Young People in Europe Based on the European Values Study

Zahvaljujući procesu globalizacije, razvojem tehnologija dolazi do razvoja medija koji imaju važnu ulogu u oblikovanju čovjekova života i društva općenito. Medijima se često pripisuje moć oblikovanja pojedinčeve svakodnevnice, a posebno svakodnevice mladih, kao društvene skupine koja odrasta i razvija se u digitalnom dobu. Ipak, u sociološkoj teoriji ne postoji usuglašenost oko učinaka koje mediji proizvode, kao ni metodološka usuglašenost u konceptualizaciji i operacionalizaciji istraživanja povjerenja u medije. Zbog toga je u istraživanju korišten mješoviti pristup te metode ankete i intervjua kako bi se dobili što bolji podaci o problemu istraživanja. Napravljena je analiza podataka iz zadnjega vala anketnoga istraživanja Europske studije vrijednosti (2017. godine). Europska studija vrijednosti je međunarodni znanstveni projekt, u koji je uključeno i Hrvatsko katoličko sveučilište. Uzorak su bili mladi od 18 do 35 godine iz 34 europske zemlje (n=16772), uključujući i Hrvatsku (n=455). U intervjuima je sudjelovalo 10 sudionika iste dobne skupine iz Zagreba i Zlatara. Rezultati pokazuju da mladi u Hrvatskoj imaju više povjerenja u društvene mreže, a manje povjerenja u tisak nego njihovi vršnjaci iz europskih zemalja te da ne postoji povezanost povjerenja u tisak i društvene mreže s veličinom grada iz kojega dolaze ispitanici. Rezultati kvalitativnoga istraživanja su pokazali da je zbog lake dostupnosti, aktualnosti, multimedijalnosti i mogućnosti arhiviranja sadržaja, internet medij koji mladi najčešće koriste. Oni na njemu i prate i konzumiraju uglavnom zabavne sadržaje te više slušaju i gledaju nego što čitaju. Sudionici u vrste medija i medijske sadržaje upisuju različita značenja vezana uz povjerenje (sažetost, potpis autora, reference, provjerljivost informacija i dr.) i nepovjerenje (senzacionalizam, lažne vijesti, dezinformacije, jednostranost i dr.), stoga se u našem istraživanju djelomično potvrđuje teorija o racionalnosti publika. Naime, sudionici ne sudjeluju javno u raspravama i komentarima, a vijesti i komentare na sadržaje dijele samo s bliskim osobama te pokazuju pasivnost prema proglašivačkoj i tekstualnoj formi zbog odbojnosti prema virtualnom nasilju. S obzirom na to da im mediji služe uglavnom za zabavu, oni ih koriste i kada nemaju povjerenje u njih.

Связь социального доверия и беспокойства о будущем в сравнительной кросс-культурной перспективе

<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Objective. </strong>Analysis of the effect of social trust on anxiety regarding the occurrence of various negative circumstances in the future.<br><strong>Background. </strong>Experiences of instability and uncertainty prompt us to reconsider the role of social trust. It is important to determine whether social trust is an independent factor that reduces anxiety about the future, or only an effect of the possession of other resources. <br><strong>Study design. </strong>The study examined the main effects of social trust on anxiety regarding the occurrence of various negative circumstances and the interaction effects of trust with other resources. The presence of significant effects and their direction were tested using multilevel ordinal logistic regression analysis. <strong>Participants. </strong>Data from Wave 7 of the World Values Survey, collected 2017-2021 in 62 countries. Country sample sizes range from 1000 to 3200. <br><strong>Measurements. </strong>Items from the World Values Survey are indicators of generalized social trust and anxiety regarding various negative circumstances, as well as sociodemographic variables. GDP per capita at purchasing power parity. <br><strong>Results. </strong>Social trust reduces anxiety about the future. This effect is independent and manifests itself when controlling for the level of possession of other resources. There also exists a negative interaction effect between social trust and other resources. <br><strong>Conclusions. </strong>Social trust reduces anxiety about the future and enhances a similar effect for indicators of the possession of other resources.</p>