Search Results (22)

Generational differences in news media trust are mainly studied in Western contexts and remain underexplored in non-Western societies. Drawing on the theory of generations, this study investigates the potential generational gaps in the levels and determinants of news media trust in China. Three analyses are conducted using data from the World Values Survey (WVS) in mainland China. Findings indicate a significant decline in news media trust levels from the Early PRC Generation (–1961) through the Cultural Revolution Generation (1962–1977), the Reform and Opening-up Generation (1978–1991), to the Globalization Generation (1992–). Notably, generation moderates the relationship between news media trust and its determinants. From older to younger generations, the influence of political trust on news media trust gradually weakens, while the impact of authoritarian personality increases. This study offers explanations for the dynamic changes in news media trust from the perspective of generational shifts. Full article

The paper aims to address large language models’ (LLMs) cultural bias using the World Value Survey Wave 7 (WVS) questionnaire on social values, attitudes, and stereotypes. Comparative analysis and LLMs interview methods measure the Euclidean distance of response vectors of four culturally diverse LLMs (USA, China, Russia, UAE) in a multidimensional vector space to contrast originated WVS research countries and population positions. The results confirmed the initial hypotheses reflecting culturally and linguistically biased LLM answers, considering specific socio-cultural contexts and English language and Latin script digital dominance in available training materials. USA-constructed LLMs showed the most liberal attitudes, followed by China, Russia, and the UAE. LLM interview results also show WVS results closest to the United States population, positioning the similarity of the responses in first place for China and Russia followed by the USA and the UAE. Mitigating initiatives in LLMs’ cultural and linguistic debiasing is required to preserve cultural and linguistic diversity in the digital space. Full article

Background/Objectives: Interest in diversity is growing worldwide. Today, an understanding and social acceptance of diverse people is becoming increasingly important. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to clarify the relationship between an individual’s gray matter volume (GMV), which is thought to reflect brain health, and their understanding of diversity (gender, sexuality (LGBTQ), and origin). Methods: GMV was determined as the value of the Gray Matter Brain Healthcare Quotient (GM-BHQ) based on MRI image analysis. Meanwhile, participants’ understanding and acceptance of diversity was calculated based on their answers to the psychological questions included in the World Values Survey Wave 7 (WVS7). Results: Our analysis indicated that, in the group of participants with the highest understanding of diversity (PHUD. n = 11), not only the GMV at the whole brain level (t = 2.587, p = 0.027, Cohen’s d = 0.780) but also the GMV of the central executive network (CEN: t = 2.700, p= 0.022, Cohen’s d = 0.814) and saliency network (SN: t = 3.100, p = 0.011, Cohen’s d = 0.935) were shown to be significantly higher than the theoretical value estimated from sex, age, and BMI at the 5% level. In addition, the GMV of the default mode network (DMN: t = 2.063, p = 0.066, Cohen’s d = 0.622) was also higher than the theoretical value at the 10% level. Meanwhile, in the group of others (n = 10), there was no significant difference from the theoretical value. These differences between PHUD and others were also observed when comparing the two with and without controlling for educational and occupational covariates at the 5% or 10% levels. Conclusions: These results suggest that understanding diversity requires a healthy brain, centered on three networks that govern rational judgment, emotion regulation, other-awareness, self-awareness, and the valuing of actions. This is the first study to show that brain structure is related to an understanding and acceptance of the diversity of people. Full article

Parental concerns about the education of children usually reflect deep-seated anxieties. This study identifies the most influential factors shaping these global concerns based on World Values Survey (WVS) data spanning several decades. Using advanced techniques, including feature selection (Adaptive and Gradient Boosting, Pairwise Correlations, LASSO, Bayesian Model Averaging), mixed-effects modeling, cross-validation procedures, different regressions and overfitting, collinearity, and reverse causality checks together with two-way graphical representations, this study identified three enduring predictors: fear of job loss, fear of war, and respondent age. These findings mainly underline the role of socio-economic and geopolitical stability and security and, in addition, that of generational perspectives in shaping global parental priorities. All three predictors were consistent across seven dataset versions, various subsets considering random (ten-folds) or non-random criteria (different values for socio-demographic variables in mixed-effects models), and distinct feature selection approaches. Secondary influences, including opinions regarding the priority of work in life, other fears, and socio-demographic variables (e.g., gender, number of children, marital and professional status, income, education level, community size, etc.) provided more nuances to this study and additional explanatory power. The findings have implications for designing socio-economically sensitive educational policies that address parental priorities and anxieties in diverse global contexts. Full article

This paper explores enduring influences on life satisfaction using empirical analysis of World Values Survey (WVS) data (four versions of the most comprehensive dataset, namely 1.6, 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0). Five significant values emerged—financial satisfaction, happiness, freedom of choice, health, and democracy. Through rigorous selection processes and various statistical techniques, a subset of three determinants resulted, along with consecrated socio-demographic variables such as age, gender, marital status, social class, and settlement size. Advanced methodologies such as feature selection, random and non-random cross-validations, overfitting removal, collinearity and reverse causality checks, and different regressions served to evaluate and validate robust models. Nomograms helped to predict life satisfaction probabilities. The findings contribute to understanding life satisfaction dynamics and offer practical insights for future research and policy. Full article

We explore whether there are value preferences of creative workers in addition to tolerance and how these value preferences vary among different occupation categories and countries. We use a dataset of 1968 and 1076 observations in China and the U.S., respectively, from the World Values Survey dataset (2017–2020, wave 7) (WVS 7), with a Structure Equation Modelling (SEM) and Multinomial Logit Model (MLM) at the micro level. The findings reveal that (1) the Chinese sample is more likely to have a balanced preference of tolerance towards migrants, religions, and homosexuality, while the American sample’s preference of tolerance is much more likely to be interpreted as accepting homosexuality only; (2) the American sample also shows preferences towards responsibility, technology, work style, and political actions, while a preference for happiness and political actions is identified in the Chinese sample; and (3) with a higher level of creativity, the difference regarding understanding of tolerance is more likely to be highlighted between China and the U.S. This study provides a quite unconventional perspective for understanding the composition of preferences and, to a certain extent, reconciles the inconsistency between the theoretical advocacy of building up a selected milieu and the reality of creative workers’ blended value mix. Full article

China’s Bay Area policies are important for integrating Hong Kong (HK) and Macao youth into China’s overall development. However, their effect on national identity is still mostly theoretical, lacking objective and scientific empirical evaluations. From a cultural adaptation perspective, interactions between social groups with different cultural backgrounds can promote cultural and political identity transformation. Therefore, guided by China’s Bay Area policies, which encourage various cross-border exchanges via economic cooperation, HK youth can keep in touch with such Mainland Chinese cultural values as “responsible government”, facilitating “political socialization”, and political–cultural adaptation, helping to promote their psychological inclusion into society, contributing to a positive attitude towards the mainland government, and achieving the policy effect of building national identity. A quasi-natural experiment based on the regional differences in the first stages of China’s Bay Area policies can help to evaluate their effects on HK youth’s national identity. This study defines the initial stage of the Bay Area policy implementation as from 2016, when the 13th Five-Year Plan advocated building the “Great Bay Area of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao”, to 2019, when the Outline was published. The policies issued at this stage were the so-called “early policies”. Due to data limitations, it is difficult to obtain post-2019 survey data; therefore, the study mainly focuses on the policy effects at the beginning of the Bay Area’s construction. Four groups of cross-sectional data from the World Value Survey 6 (WVS6) (2010–2014) and World Value Survey 7 (WVS7) (2017–2020), with HK and the mainland (the non-Guangdong region) included, are used to examine the policy effect under the Difference-in-Differences (DID) Model. The research shows that the policies significantly enhanced HK youth’s national identity, and their trust in the mainland government played an intermediary role in the policy effect mechanism. However, the effect was uneven, benefiting the national identities of HK youth working in the for-profit private sector more than their unemployed or public sector peers. Therefore, this research proposes several policy implications to facilitate policy decision making related to youth in China’s Bay Area. Full article

Although the topic of corruption in South Asia has attracted a great deal of attention, extant research on individual-level factors is sparse. With this background, this paper examines the effect of selected individual-level determinants on South Asian people’s justifiability of corruption. For analysis, the paper uses the World Value Survey (WVS) dataset and carries out its own survey as well. Using multinomial logistic regression (MLR) and binomial logistic regression (BLR) as a robustness check, this paper identifies that variables of age, education, religiosity, and individualism/collectivism have significant effects on respondents’ corruption justifiability in South Asia. In addition, the paper performs additional analyses independently using two surveys utilized in the main analysis as a single dataset to report the main differences between them. In conclusion, this paper proposes a region-specific suggestion for South Asian governments and policy makers. Full article

National innovation systems (NIS) are generally perceived as a set of interconnected organizations (or structures) that domestically produce and commercially implement scientific knowledge and technology. The development of any national innovation system is the key element for shaping up the scientific values in every country. Our paper identifies the trends in global innovation and technological scope associated with the formation of global economic relations, global investment, the flow of knowledge, technology, increased internationalization of R&D, and the formation of global innovation networks. In addition, it attempts to trace the relationship between instrumental values associated with the perception of science and technology and the development of NIS within the context of sustainable economic development using a case study from Russia. The paper carries out the analysis of values on the basis of the World Values Survey (WVS), as well as statistical indicators characterizing the development of the national innovation system. The obtained quantitative results stemming from our empirical model are further refined with the help of qualitative research, including the narrative economics approaches. Our results might be beneficial for the stakeholders and policymakers working with innovation policies and approaches in business, economics, and education. Full article

Sustainability gets higher on the policy agenda of many countries in terms of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Unethical tax behaviour diminishes the tax system’s sustainability, but paying taxes is necessary if we want to contribute to society. There is a deeper need to understand the factors that influence taxpayers’ perceptions, personal values and personal tax culture. Previous research by the OECD (2013, 2019) using the World Values Survey (WVS) did not provide a sufficient explanation of all the socio-economic factors associated with personal tax culture. As the behaviour of an individual is shaped by a set of values, and values can provide predictive and explanatory power in the analysis of attitudes, opinions and actions by policymakers, it is necessary for them to understand such when proposing tax morale incentives within the institutional pillar. A literature review showed that the research topics on personal tax culture present specific assumptions and gaps. To contribute to this topic, a conceptual model was developed, and the relationship between personal values (conservation/self-enhancement), measured by the widely accepted and recognised Schwartz’s circular model, and personal tax culture was analysed with the aim of formulating recommendations for policymakers. The survey conducted in Slovenia involved 202 respondents. Based on exploratory factor analysis and the performed correlation analysis, empirical research suggests that a relationship between personal values and personal tax culture as the cornerstones of an individual’s tax-compliant behaviour and their attitude towards the ethics of tax evasion is significant. The correlation between personal values and an individual’s attitude towards the tax system is insignificant. By understanding the relationships between individuals’ personal and tax culture values, policymakers can achieve a greater sustainable tax system. Full article

Sustainable development is becoming increasingly important because it improves the quality of our lives. Businesses must focus beyond maximizing corporate economic profits, which are very important. They must internalize the fact that planning and governance-oriented strategies focused on promoting human health and well-being ensure a sustainable future. This study explores the influence exerted by trust in large companies and banks on the perception that technological development has on people’s life satisfaction. The research uses data from the World Value Survey (WVS) and the World Bank, contemplating six Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, in the period between 2012 and 2018. Our main results show that the lower the trust in institutions, the stronger the negative association with perceiving science and technology as making life easier, healthier and more comfortable in the near future. We also confirm that people who have very high levels of national pride tend to trust institutions. We also confirm that people who have very high levels of national pride tend to trust institutions. Finally, with this work, we contribute new empirical evidence to the current field of research on the influence of technological development on issues related to human beings, specifically in Latin America. Full article

When people who adhere to tax morality act in a situation where there is no sense of risk, no acceptance of the government, or no environment conducive to tax compliance, it is easier to see how they are motivated to do so. Tax morality is also known as the ethics of compliance. It is the independent cause that motivates a positive tax behaviour. Employees’ religious beliefs may impact their ideas and actions in organizational life, just as individuals’ attitudes, values, emotions, abilities, and behaviours influence their thoughts and actions at work. Religion can positively influence a worker’s loyalty, morale, and communication. In this context, the research seeks to determine whether religiosity and religion may have an effect on tax morale, examining whether an individual’s religiosity reduces tax evasion and increases the degree of tax morale. Using machine learning variable selection techniques appropriate for categorical variables, we have used the dataset of the Joint EVS/WVS 2017-2020 (European Value Survey/World Value Survey), allowing for comparisons of tax morality in more than 79 nations globally (chi-squared and mutual information). The empirical findings showed that the most important aspects of religiosity, such as religious denomination, belief in God, and the significance of God, along with the degree of trust placed in other religions and churches, have a considerable positive impact on the level of tax morale. Another significant conclusion relates to how much people feel the government is responsible, how much they care about their nation, and how satisfied they are with the political system—findings that have been shown to boost employee morale. The following are a person’s primary traits that indicate their financial morale: an adult above the age of 25, a full-time worker or retired person, married, and living alone. Therefore, employees that are morally upright, trustworthy, diligent, and committed to the workplace values of justice and decency raise morale generally and improve an organisation’s success. A business may enhance its reputation and help to secure its long-term success by establishing behavioural policies. Full article

Work motivation plays a vital role in the development of organizations, as it increases employee productivity and effectiveness. To expand insights into individuals’ work motivation, the authors investigated the influence of individuals’ competence, autonomy, and social relatedness on their work motivation. Additionally, the country-level moderating factors of those individual-level associations were examined. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used to analyze data from 32,614 individuals from 25 countries, obtained from the World Values Survey (WVS). Findings showed that autonomy and social relatedness positively impacted work motivation, while competence negatively influenced work motivation. Moreover, the individual-level associations were moderated by the country-level religious affiliation, political participation, humane orientation, and in-group collectivism. Contributions, practical implications, and directions for further research were then discussed. Full article

The privacy and security of online transactions and information exchange has always been a critical issue of e-commerce. However, there is a certain level of tolerance (a share of 36%) when it comes to so-called governments’ rights to monitor electronic mail messages and other information exchange as resulting from the answers of respondents from 51 countries in the latest wave (2017–2020) of the World Values Survey. Consequently, the purpose of this study is to discover the most significant influences associated with this type of tolerance and even causal relationships. The variables have been selected and analyzed in many rounds (Adaptive Boosting, LASSO, mixed-effects modeling, and different regressions) with the aid of a private cloud. The results confirmed most hypotheses regarding the overwhelming role of trust, public surveillance acceptance, and some attitudes indicating conscientiousness, altruistic behavior, and gender discrimination acceptance in models with good-to-excellent classification accuracy. A generated prediction nomogram included 10 ten most resilient influences. Another one contained only 5 of these 10 that acted more as determinants resisting reverse causality checks. In addition, some sociodemographic controls indicated significant variables afferent to the highest education level attained, settlement size, and marital status. The paper’s novelty stands on many robust techniques supporting randomly and nonrandomly cross-validated and fully reproducible results based on a large amount and variety of evidence. The findings also represent a step forward in research related to privacy and security issues in e-commerce. Full article

This paper studies the relationship of factors such as ageing, gender and environmental problems included in the quality of life (QoL) with the subjective well-being represented by the life satisfaction (LS) indicator of the citizens of 33 European countries. To do so, it uses the LS of a country’s citizens as the dependent variable; ageing, gender and environmental variables as independent variables; and other factors included in the QoL indicators and macroeconomic factors as control variables. Analysis uses data from the World Values Survey (WVS) and the European Values Study (EVS) for LS, from Eurostat for QoL indicators and World Bank for macroeconomic indicators. The values of LS have been treated based on the individual data from WVS and EVS in percentages according to their levels by country, and we present four robust models (two logit model and two OLS model). The results show that arrears of people aged 65 and over are a relation of positive significative in models with low levels of LS. The opposite is true for the income of people aged 65 and over. On the other hand, pollution, grime or other environmental problems and inequality show an inverse relationship with life satisfaction in models with high levels of satisfaction and a positive relationship in models with low levels of satisfaction. Nonetheless, the study has also shown contradictions in the gender gap and poverty indicators that should be studied further. Full article