Worldwide divergence of values

Interesting piece recently published on worldwide divergence of cultural values, which has implications for current discussions... my guess interpretation will also be viewed in a value filter as well as framing effects- as I wouldn't necessarily view the dv's as "emancipative values” depending on the specifics.

These values were (1) justifiability of homosexuality, (2) justifiability of euthanasia, (3) importance of obedience of children, (4) justifiability of divorce, (5) justifiability of prostitution, (6) justifiability of suicide, and (7) justifiability of abortion. 

This plot shows that Oceanic, European, North American, and South American countries have progressively endorsed more emancipative values, whereas endorsement of these values has been stable across Asian and African countries.

Cites Sam Huntington....that future conflicts will be along cultural fault lines, that as the West recedes through so called decolonization efforts, people return to ancestral fault lines and along with that…new and often old enemies.

Religion has also emerged as a robust predictor of value similarity. Countries with more similar religious profiles have more similar values, even controlling for their similarity in wealth, geographic position, and other geopolitical features. This finding conceptually replicates a recent analysis that found that co-religionists—even those living in similar countries—shared similar values55. The fact that values are segregating along geographical and religious fault-lines further supports Huntington’s thesis that the 21st century would see a rise of ancestral cleavages in values.

Cross-cultural scholars have pointed out that people from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) countries have psychological traits that differ from the rest of the world. This peculiarity presents an external validity problem for studies that recruit mostly WEIRD subjects, and it also presents an intellectual problem for cultural evolutionists who hope to explain regional variation. 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-46581-5

MDB

Mack D. Burke, Ph.D.

Department of Educational Psychology

Applied Behavior Analysis and Special Education Programs

Behavioral Education & Assessment Research (BEAR Lab)

School of Education, Baylor University