Socio-Demographic Effects on Cultural Biases: A Nordic Study of Grid-Group Theory

Abstract

Grid-group theory claims that patterns of social relations only, and not socio-demographic characteristics, can account for biases, of which the theory prescribes four: hierarchy, egalitarianism, individualism and fatalism. Survey analysts conventionally employ respondents' socio-demographic correlates when accounting for values. We take the value survey strategy and apply it to grid-group theory's four biases. Employing a 1999 survey administered in Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland (n = 4,832), we combine two goals in this article. We test how sex, age, education and income can account for biases. By extension, we test grid-group theory's claim of no such effect. The results show that biases are influenced by socio-demographics in ways unaccounted for by the theory. The four correlates explain on average 9 per cent of the variation in the biases. Education is the only correlate that has a negative and significant effect across all biases in all countries. Women adhere to egalitarianism, whereas men adhere to individualism. Age is a consistent positive correlate of hierarchy, whereas income is a consistent negative correlate of fatalism. Grid-group theory will not be impaired if it can be shown how robust socio-demographic correlates interact with patterns of social relations.

A community participatory study of cardiovascular health and exposure to near-highway air pollution: study design and methods

“…The questionnaire operationalizes items that encompass the grid/group construct, which have been shown to be associated with sociodemographic characteristics (77). Pilot testing was conducted with these items with an ethnically diverse convenience sample.…”

The Relationship Between Sociodemographics and Environmental Values Across Seven European Countries

“…With regard to egoistic values, because it has been shown that men are more individualistic than women ( Grendstad and Sundback, 2003 ), it is assumed that men will more strongly endorse egoistic values than women will. The sparse empirical evidence related to this hypothesis, however, seems to show no difference in egoistic values by gender (i.e., Ndofirepi, 2019 ; d = 0.11).…”

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Gender, Ethnicity and Environmental Risk Perception Revisited: The Importance of Residential Location

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