Globalization and access to social networks and media from anywhere on the planet seem to indicate that we are heading towards a more uniform world, with increasingly similar societies and cultures. But the reality is different. Sociocultural differences between countries are increasing. Analysis of waves of the World Values Survey (WVS) conducted between 1981 and 2022 shows that cultural values have become more different globally but more similar regionally, according to a published article in Nature Communications.
Its authors, researchers and professors at the Booth Business School at the University of Chicago, have measured the variation of 40 values related to freedom, religion, education, obedience or equal opportunities in 76 countries in the last 40 years and have found evidence that they are trending towards divergence and also that high-income Western countries are becoming more culturally distinct from other regions of the world.
“Our study cannot identify the determining cause of this divergence in accepted values in different parts of the world, but it seems that a key factor has been the unequal effect of wealth on social values,” Joshua explains in an email interview. C. Jackson, first author of the research.
And he points out that in European and North American countries, the increase in wealth has given rise to more emancipatory values, which are those related to personal autonomy, freedom to choose lifestyles and equality. But in other regions, the economic improvement has not been accompanied by these changes, so the cultural distance has widened.
In their article they mention how, for example, the increase in per capita income in Hong Kong and Canada between 2000 and 2020 was similar and, however, the acceptance of homosexuality grew at a much faster rate in the North American country. , where however concern about child labor fell, a value that gained relevance in Hong Kong.
According to the study, the increase in divergence is observed more in the so-called “emancipative” values (linked to the freedom of lifestyles) than in the “sacred” or traditional ones. Specifically, the values with the highest divergence scores between countries are the acceptance of homosexuality, euthanasia, the importance of children's obedience, the acceptance of divorce, prostitution, suicide or abortion.
On the other hand, those on which there is more unanimity in all cultures are the need to put more emphasis on technology in the future, considering responsibility as an important childhood quality, improving respect for authority or giving it less importance to work.
The difference in emancipatory values is widening the distance between Western and non-Western societies. The authors of the article exemplify this by contrasting the cases of Australia and Pakistan.
The first time Australians were surveyed in the WVS, 39% of participants rated obedience as an important quality in children and divorce as more unjustifiable than justifiable. And Pakistanis' responses at the time were not all that different: 32% valued childhood obedience as important and divorce was seen as more unjustifiable than justifiable. In contrast, the last time they were surveyed, only 18% of Australians, compared to 49% of Pakistanis, cited obedience as an important quality in children and saw divorce as mostly justifiable while Pakistanis did not.
Parallel to this global sociocultural distancing, Jackson explains that they have observed that geographical proximity correlates with greater similarity of values. “It is an independent phenomenon; “We observe a global divergence of values accompanied by a realignment of values along regional and religious lines, which is consistent with Huntington's civilizations thesis and more recent work on increases in geopolitical regionalism from macroeconomics,” comment the investigator.
And it highlights the impact that this finding has for both governments and companies, since social values determine legislation, the economic climate and international conflicts.
“For multinational companies this means that they will have to adapt their products and brands to increasingly culturally polarized markets; For ordinary citizens, this means that cultural differences are not going to disappear and that people from different countries will maintain different perspectives on social and moral issues,” Jackson exemplifies.
In his article, he highlights how this divergence also has implications for political polarization. “Russia has framed the war in Ukraine as a war against Western values; Chinese politicians speak out against countries that promote the Western concept and system of democracy and human rights; and public opinion polls find increasingly hostile attitudes toward Western countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa,” the researchers exemplify.
Along these lines, they comment that "WEIRD subjects (people from Western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic countries) have become peculiar, at least in their social and moral values; they have psychological traits that differ from the rest of the world."
