8:55 a.m.
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<https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-46581-5#ref-CR55>;. 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