Postmaterialism in World Societies: Is It Really a Value Dimension?

Davis, Darren W.; Dowley, Kathleen M.; Silver, Brian D.

doi:10.2307/2991841

Cited by 41 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Empirical research into values differences in general, and the "wall in the head" thesis in particular, relies mostly on survey questions to measure differences in values. The interpretation of survey scores as eliciting values has come under heavy fire recently (Clarke et al, 1999;Davis et al, 1999;Duch and Taylor, 1993;Maseland and van Hoorn, 2009) and has provided ambiguous results in the case of East and West Germany (Shiller et al, 1991(Shiller et al, , 1992Corneo and Grüner, 2002;Alesina and Fuchs-Schündeln, 2007). Our use of heterogeneous happiness functions shows that an approach focusing on group variation in the way in which situational factors are transformed into happiness can be successfully applied to measure differences in value preferences.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Cultural differences between East and West Germany after 1991: Communist values versus economic performance?

Hoorn

Maseland

2010

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization

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a b s t r a c tTwo decades after reunification substantial economic disparities between East and West Germany remain. With formal institutions being equalized, a typical explanation is that the partition of Germany created differences in economic values and attitudes that continue to feed differences in economic performance. Empirical work using values surveys to investigate the extent to which values differ between East and West has thus far produced mixed findings. We use individual-level panel data to assess East and West German value preferences by investigating how individuals from each group differentially transform situational factors into happiness. This novel method of assessing value differences shows that preferences indeed vary between East and West Germans. However, this variation is not in line with the differences associated with the gap in economic performance; if anything, Easterners appear to entertain values more conducive to economic growth. This suggests that the belief that economic differences between Eastern and Western Germany are a result of a Communist cultural legacy may be largely a myth.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Cultural differences between East and West Germany after 1991: Communist values versus economic performance?

Hoorn

Maseland

2010

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization

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“…Methodologically, critics claim Inglehart's postmaterialism measure does not capture the properties of the concept [22,23], with some arguing that postmaterialism is a proxy for education and affluence [24], or even that the materialism-postmaterialism dimension is non-existent [25,26]. At a practical level, the ineluctable rise of Western postmaterialists looks far from certain.…”

Section: The Determinants Of Public Concern About the Environment: Exmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…First, the methodological critiques tend to focus not on environmental issues but on testing the validity of the postmaterialism measure. Environmentalism is peripheral to this, with even the twelve-item index of postmaterialism including only one question on the environment [26] (p. 938). Second, comparative studies have focused disproportionately on developed nations [16,18,[35][36][37][38].…”

Section: The Determinants Of Public Concern About the Environment: Exmentioning

confidence: 99%

Current and Future Friends of the Earth: Assessing Cross-National Theories of Environmental Attitudes

Stenner

Nwokora

2015

Energies

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Empirical studies of public opinion on environmental protection have typically been grounded in Inglehart's post-materialism thesis, proposing that societal affluence encourages materially-sated publics to look beyond their interests and value the environment. These studies are generally conducted within, or at best across, Western, democratic, industrialized countries. Absence of truly cross-cultural research means the theory's limitations have gone undetected. This article draws on an exceptionally broad dataset-pooling cross-sectional survey data from 80 countries, each sampled at up to three different points over 15 years-to investigate environmental attitudes. We find that post-materialism provides little account of pro-environment attitudes across diverse cultures, and a far from adequate explanation even in the affluent West. We suggest that unique domestic interests, more than broad value systems, are driving emerging global trends in environmental attitudes. The environment's future champions may be the far from 'post-material' citizens of those developing nations most at risk of real material harm from climate change and environmental degradation.

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“…Several essays developed the critique of Inglehart's methodology (Hadenius, and Teorell, 2005;Haller, 2002;Haller and Hadler, 2006;Steenkamp, and Geyskens, 2012;furthermore Au, 2000;Davis, Dowley, and Silver, 1999;Li, Zinn, Chick, Absher, Graefe, and Hsu, 2007;Sacchi, 1998;Van de Vijver, and Poortinga, 2002 (Inglehart and Baker, 2000: 23-24) In that quoted path-breaking essay, which has become a true classic of contemporary global sociology, they also go on to say that the two mentioned dimensions explain 70 percent of the total cross-national variation among 10 variables. The factor scores generated by these 10 items are highly correlated with factor scores from earlier research.…”

Section: Geert Hofstedementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Convincing, as Inglehart's theory and empirics might appear at first sight, several essays questioned Inglehart's way of combining the analyzed variables into his dimensions or the linkage between his dimensions and democratic development (Hadenius, and Teorell, 2005;Haller, 2002;Haller and Hadler, 2006;Steenkamp, and Geyskens, 2012;furthermore Au, 2000;Davis, Dowley, and Silver, 1999;Li, Zinn, Chick, Absher, Graefe, and Hsu, 2007;Sacchi, 1998;Van de Vijver, and Poortinga, 2002). In our view, the most important theoretical and at the same time empirical problem is the following: principle component analysis or factor analysis with orthogonal standard rotation of factors (as is the current SPSS default option) is a convenient, but not always best way to reduce the relationships in a statistical correlation matrix between variables.…”

Section: Re-analysis Of Inglehart's Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Hofstede, Inglehart and Beyond. New Directions in Empirical Global Value Research

Tausch

2015

SSRN Journal

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However much we appreciate the enormous scientific contribution by Professor Ronald Inglehart, who initiated the international data collection of the World Values Survey, our re-analysis of the very World Values Survey data ["roll-outs" of the World Values Survey data wvs1981_2008_v20090914.sav] brought us to question Inglehart's theories, with which he and his associates interpret the mass of the World Values Survey data. Their theoretical approach does not use a sufficiently number of hard-core indicators how global publics view central issues of economic policy, and their theories overemphasize a secularistic view of the religious phenomenon in modern society. Their theories predict the gradual waning of the religious phenomena in parallel with the increase of human security, and even cherish at times the tendencies brought about by such a waning of the religious element in advanced democracies. Inglehart spells them out: higher levels of tolerance for abortion, divorce, homosexuality; the erosion of parental authority, the decrease of the importance of family life et cetera. Is that really something to cherish?

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Postmaterialism in World Societies: Is It Really a Value Dimension?

Cited by 41 publications

References 20 publications

Cultural differences between East and West Germany after 1991: Communist values versus economic performance?

Cultural differences between East and West Germany after 1991: Communist values versus economic performance?

Current and Future Friends of the Earth: Assessing Cross-National Theories of Environmental Attitudes

Hofstede, Inglehart and Beyond. New Directions in Empirical Global Value Research

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