Worldwide Divergence of Values

Abstract: Have the last 40 years brought more global consensus on what people value as important and just? We use survey data from 1981–2022 (n = 406,185) to test whether social values have become more similar (converged) or dissimilar (diverged) across 76 national cultures. We find evidence of global value divergence. Values emphasizing tolerance and openness have diverged most sharply, and wealthy Western countries have developed values that are especially dissimilar from the rest of the world. We also find that countries with similar levels of wealth have held similar values over the last 40 years. Over time, however, geographic proximity has emerged as an increasingly strong correlate of value similarity between countries, indicating that values have diverged globally but converged regionally. Worldwide value divergence could exacerbate the WEIRD problem in behavioral science and may be co-evolving with anti-Western sentiment in parts of Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe. Value divergence is important to understand given the significance of value conflict in international disputes.

Keywords: Values, Geopolitics, History