Japan beats Sweden by a nose in secular-rational values.

May 9, 2010 11:59 PM

The Inglehart Values Map, based on the World Values Survey, visualizes the strong correlation of values in different cultures. Countries are clustered in a remarkably predictable way, with great cultural continuity across the English-speaking world.
posted by ms.codex (21 comments total)

How hard is it to immigrate to new Zealand?
posted by BrotherCaine at 12:24 AM on May 10, 2010

The Inglehart Values Map visualizes the strong correlation of values in different cultures. Countries are clustered in a remarkably predictable way.

Or, 'we put two abstract concepts on one axis, and two on another, in an arrangement that reflects our worldview, and said worldview was reaffirmed! That's empirical, right?'
posted by Subcommandante Cheese at 12:38 AM on May 10, 2010 [5 favorites]

BrotherCaine: "How hard is it to immigrate to new Zealand?"

New Zealand? Hell, I am shooting for Sweden personally.
posted by idiopath at 12:40 AM on May 10, 2010

Er.. why are East Germany and West Germany separate countries?
posted by MuffinMan at 12:44 AM on May 10, 2010

odd that sweden and finland are so far apart on the map

interesting how close india and poland are... that's "remarkably predictable"? one would have thought india closer to UK for example vis a vis catholic world...

sounds like subcommandante cheese has a point


idiopath, come to finland ;p
posted by infini at 12:50 AM on May 10, 2010 [1 favorite]

Oh, Canada.... Sweden is making you look like the U.S.!

In case anyone is making a list, I'd like to move to Japan or Sweden - where ever the boat's going, I'm in.
posted by _paegan_ at 1:00 AM on May 10, 2010

The links to individual graphs seem to indicate most of the data coming from 1995-1998, I'd imagine that an up-to-date graph might be very different.
posted by kersplunk at 1:04 AM on May 10, 2010

Er.. why are East Germany and West Germany separate countries?
posted by MuffinMan at 4:44 PM on May 10 [+] [!]

It looks like East Germany is in the "Ex-Communist" cluster, and West Germany is not. From what I understand, though reunited, the Össie and the Wessie are still of very different mindsets. Any Germans want to field that one?
posted by gc at 1:28 AM on May 10, 2010

The way the plots on subjective well-being versus GDP are presented is outdated. The curve slopes upward quickly, and then tapers off. This is used to argue that there are two different clusters - the developing world, where money matters to happiness, and the developed world, where it doesn't so much. But as Kahneman has pointed out, any good economist would put GDP on a log scale. When you do that, the two clusters disappear and you get a nice linear relationship. GDP is related to subjective wellbeing everywhere, not just the developing world.
posted by Philosopher Dirtbike at 1:36 AM on May 10, 2010

gc: point taken, but then there are lots of countries with the wide cultural divergences, e.g. South Africa, China.

Just seems like an odd thing to do.
posted by MuffinMan at 1:50 AM on May 10, 2010 [1 favorite]

I wouldn't consider East and West Germans as very distinct. Surely, there still are a few demographic differences between the east and west federal states, and probably some recognizable cultural ones. But generally, these are mostly stereotypes, maybe similar to the ones about Bavarians and Prussians.

It's Ossi (or Ossie). There also is the term Ösi, but it refers to Austrians (Österreicher).
posted by Henrik at 2:30 AM on May 10, 2010

It'd be more credible if large, diverse areas such as the US were blobs rather than points. I imagine that there'd be a lot of difference between, say, conservative Mormons in rural Utah and culturally-engaged hipsters in Portland, Oregon. For that matter, the UK would have a fair amount of difference (the north/south divide, for one; I've heard claims that Scotland is culturally closer to Scandinavia than to the south of England).
posted by acb at 3:09 AM on May 10, 2010

If you're going to divide the USA up into groups, then you'd have to do the same for India and China and other high-population countries too.
posted by harriet vane at 3:21 AM on May 10, 2010

acb, that may be true, but where does that end? I'd imagine that people in Oregon East of the Cascades have more in common with the Mormons than the hipsters. As harriet vane says, you'd have to do this with other diverse countries as well. India for one is much more culturally diverse than the US.

The real crucial test is whether the different American regions where closer to each other or to other countries, would any region of the US be closer to the centroid of the "Protestant European" blob than to the centroid of the "English Speaking" blob?
posted by atrazine at 3:58 AM on May 10, 2010

Societies near the traditional pole emphasize the importance of parent-child ties and deference to authority, along with absolute standards and traditional family values...

And yet the group furthest away from the traditional pole is the Confucian group including China and Japan?
posted by XMLicious at 4:44 AM on May 10, 2010 [2 favorites]

would any region of the US be closer to the centroid of the "Protestant European" blob than to the centroid of the "English Speaking" blob?

Scandinavian parts of Minnesota perhaps? Though it depends how quickly a region assimilates the values of its neighbours.
posted by acb at 5:02 AM on May 10, 2010

Do not question the graph — it's 100% linguistically accurate!
posted by adipocere at 5:03 AM on May 10, 2010

i just wonder if it was drawn by those clever MBA beating kindergartners?
posted by infini at 5:08 AM on May 10, 2010

Help! I'm a secular survivalist stuck in an self-expressive traditionalist society. Someone please send me the complete works of Nietzsche disguised as a King James bible and interleaved with 100 Euro notes.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 8:56 AM on May 10, 2010 [1 favorite]

Hm, the values of Great Britain are close to those of Austria or Luxembourg; much closer at any rate, than British values are to those of New Zealand. But even the relatively alien Kiwis have more in common with Britain than Northern Ireland, which obviously shares its values most closely with Uruguay. Uruguay: which is in Europe, not Latin America, not to be confused with Portugal, which is indeed in Latin America and not in Europe (though far nearer in outlook to Argentina than Brazil).

Yes, predictable.
posted by Phanx at 9:53 AM on May 10, 2010

Have Britain and Australia/New Zealand diverged that far in the 200+ years since British settlement and/or 40 or so years since Antipodeans stopped being British subjects? Conversely, has the post-WW2 order of Europe drawn Britain towards more continental values? (You wouldn't know it with the anti-EU hysteria in the press here.)
posted by acb at 11:16 AM on May 10, 2010