Value orientations are significant factors in understanding different attitudes, beliefs and behavior. ESS data provides an opportunity to test this notion across nations and over time. The construct of values is central to different fields in the social sciences and humanities (Sagiv, et al., 2017). Therefore, researchers from various disciplines can contribute to knowledge about this topic. Moreover, practitioners are interested in value orientations as understanding them helps to predict human behavior. With reference to Sagiv and Schwartz (2022), values serve as guiding principles in people’s lives. Finally, discussion about the mechanisms that link values to behavior is still ongoing. ESS data could meaningfully contribute to this discussion with the analysis of direct or indirect effects of human values to various patterns of attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors in Europe.
So, we invite researchers from social sciences and humanities to propose their presentations to the section ‘’Value orientations in the study of lives across nations and over time‘‘ in ESS conference. We hope to provide answers to such questions as 1) if particular values and higher order value orientations are stable over time and across nations, how it could be explained; 2) what links between value orientations and attitudes, beliefs, behavior are the strongest; 3) what mechanisms could explain the links among values, beliefs, attitudes and behavior the best; 4) how value orientations contribute to the pursuit and fulfilment of sustainable development goals. Insights from the presentations will be a valuable input to research development and practical recommendations.
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How Do the Elements of Schwartz’s Cultural Model Relate to Other Cultural Models? Evidence from the ESS
Anneli Kaasa
University of Tartu, Estonia
This presentation focuses on culture as a pattern of values, attitudes and beliefs that differentiates people in one country in another. There are many models of culture in literature offering different cultural dimensions, Schwartz's being one of them. The ESS questionnaire includes 21 questions proposed by Schwartz as a short version of his PVQ that served as a basis for his cultural model. Schwartz (2006) analysed the data from the first wave (2002) of the ESS and was able to replicate his circumplex of cultural orientations. However, recently, Kaasa and Welzel (2023) have shown based on the WVS data that the items inspired by Schwartz’s questionnaire are replicating the same pattern when analysed alone, but do not confirm the assumptions when analysed on the background of other items. That study was based on Kaasa (2021) and Kaasa and Minkov (2022) offering a system that merges different cultural models, including Schwartz’s, into one system.
This presentation will introduce a new study that analyses the data from nine ESS waves in order to investigate further, how the Schwartz’s cultural-level model and it’s elements relate to other cultural models for which we have up-to-date data, such as Inglehart’s model that has survived, and Minkov’s revision of Hofstede’s model.
The preliminary results show that confirming the ideas of Fog (2022) and Kaasa and Minkov (2022) two meaningful cultural dimensions can be extracted from the 21 items in the ESS, which are in accordance with the Schwartz’s initial hypothesis about one broad dimension opposing conservatism/embeddedness to autonomy and the other opposing mastery plus hierarchy to harmony plus egalitarianism. Applying matrix rotations based on the results of Kaasa and Minkov (2022) demonstrates that, those two dimensions are placed between the Inglehart’s dimensions as the system offered by Kaasa (2021) and Kaasa and Welzel (2023) proposes.
Fog, A. (2022). Two-Dimensional Models of Cultural Differences: Statistical and Theoretical Analysis. Cross-Cultural Research, 57(2-3), 115–165.
Kaasa, A. (2021) Merging Hofstede, Schwartz, and Inglehart into a Single System. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 52(4), 339-353
Kaasa, A., Minkov, M. (2022) Are Different Two-Dimensional Models of Culture Just a Matter of Different Rotations? Evidence From the Analysis Based on the WVS/EVS. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 53(2), 127-156
Kaasa, A.; Welzel, C. (2023) Elements of Schwartz’s Model in the WVS: How Do They Relate to Other Cultural Models? Cross-Cultural Research, 57(5), 431−471
Schwartz, S. H. (2006). A Theory of Cultural Value Orientations: Explication and Applications. Comparative Sociology, 5(2–3), 137–182.
Investigating the Links Between Values and Beliefs in COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories
Aukse Balcytiene, Jurate Imbrasaite
Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania
The previous research has broadly examined individual and contextual variables associated with beliefs in conspiracy theories. However, the extent in terms of strength, direction and statistical significance of that association depends on a specific conspiracy theory belief being examined and it implies that the generalizability of findings is typically uncertain.
Based on European Social Survey (2020) data from Lithuania and Finland, the paper examines the extent to which values predict beliefs in conspiracy theories in established and new democracies by considering both individual-level and contextual covariates of beliefs in COVID 19 related conspiracy theories.
Our results show that the individual values play a lesser role in shaping the beliefs in conspiracy theories in new democracies in comparison with established ones, which implies that beliefs in conspiracy theories in those countries may be determined by situational factors to a higher extent.
Furthermore, the results show different associations between values of benevolence, conformity and security, and the three groups (non-believers, ignorant, and believers) that were identified according to endorsement of conspiracy theories within the two countries – Lithuania and Finland.
From the perspectives of modernization theory, we argue that the difference in the association between values and beliefs in conspiracy theories may be explained by socioeconomic and cultural conditions of a particular country.
Latent Profile Analysis of Schwartz Value Scales: between “stable” and “changing”
Tadas Vadvilavičius, Aurelija Stelmokienė
Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania
Introduction. As Heraclitus once said, “The only constant is change”. Besides the fast technological, economic, political, and environmental changes, people, and cultures change as well. Lithuania – a post-soviet country has experienced a high level of macro changes over the decades. Data of European Social Survey also shows that now Lithuanians are happier than in 2010. Studies suggest that happiness is influenced by values (Schwartz & Sortheix, 2018; Lee & Kawachi, 2019; Lu et al., 2001). But the question remains – have people’s values in Lithuania changed as well? The purpose of this study is to test and empirically find latent profiles in Lithuanian sample based on Schwartz value scales in order to answer how have Lithuanian citizens changed over time. To find some “stability”, we will compare Lithuania`s results with “the constant of high happiness” – Switzerland. Methodology. The European Social Survey (ESS) Round 5 and 10 data from Lithuania and Switzerland was used. 4 higher-order values of Schwartz were used for the analysis – Openness to Change, Self-Enhancement, Self-Transcendence, and Conservation. Latent profile analysis was conducted using tidyLPA package (Rosenberg et al., 2018) for R. Results. Results have revealed that profiles of values have changed in both Lithuania (with changing happiness) and Switzerland (with stable happiness) over the course of 10 years. The best profile solution was different for both Lithuania and Switzerland in Round 5 and Round 10. The best solution for Round 5 in Switzerland was 7 profiles while for Round 10 only 5 profiles, meanwhile, the best solution for Round 5 in Lithuania was 10 profiles while for Round 10 it was even more - 13 profiles. In general, analysis have revealed that Lithuanian sample is more diverse, because the identified profiles have more different value patterns, compared to Switzerland. During the presentation, we will present the changes according to the number and content of the identified value profiles and analyze their relationship with happiness in a country. Conclusion and implication. The results revealed a possible number of profiles based on values in Lithuania and Switzerland in both Round 5 and Round 10. Although no common profile solution was found, we emphasize that Lithuania looks like more value diverse than Switzerland. Maybe, higher diversity in profiles in Lithuania is related to changes of Lithuanians’ happiness during the 10 years. Meanwhile, more “stable” pattern of profiles in Switzerland is related to the fact that Switzerland is always one of the happiest countries in the world.
What Explains Country-Level Differences in Political Belief System Coherence?
Philip Warncke
UNC Chapel Hill, USA
Public opinion research has made tremendous progress in identifying the conditions
under which individual- and group-level factors induce citizens to form coherent
political attitudes, yet comparatively little attention has been given to the role of national
political context for belief system coherence. By modeling political beliefs as dedicated
statistical networks based on nationally representative surveys covering 38 European
countries between 2002 and 2020, I show that national-level belief systems vary
substantially and systematically in attitude constraint. I theoretically motivate and
empirically support a path mediation model that explains country-level belief system
coherence as jointly driven by the elite supply of and mass demand for programmatic
party-citizen linkages. Compared with elite-centered explanations, bottom-up drivers
such as dense civil society organizations and high levels of civic activism emerge as
surprisingly strong and direct predictors of mass belief constraint. Furthermore, where
symbolic, ideological identities are central to political attitude systems, mass beliefs
tend to be more coherent overall.
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