The Human Component of Social Change.

Regents Of The University Of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

SES- 0622497 Ronald Inglehart Jon Miller University of Michigan The grant provides funds for fieldwork for the U.S. component of the fifth wave of the World Values Survey; and to add a battery of questions concerning public attitudes toward science and technology to this survey, which will be carried out in 50 to 60 countries on all six inhabited continents. The World Values Survey (WVS) provides the only source of data on mass values and attitudes from countries containing a majority of the world's population. The fact that the WVS provides data from scores of countries over a 25 year period makes it possible to carry out cross-level analyses, (1) examining the impact of economic and technological change on people's values; and (2) analyzing the impact of individual-level values and beliefs on societal-level phenomena such as the extent to which a society has democratic institutions. This project will add a new dimension to these surveys, measuring mass attitudes toward science and technology, using items that have been tested and validated in research sponsored by the NSF during the past two decades. Current controversy over such topics as stem cell research and genetically modified crops makes it clear that these attitudes have important societal implications. Evidence from the first four waves of the World Values Survey demonstrate that people's orientations concerning politics, religion, gender roles, work motivations, and sexual norms are changing "along with their attitudes toward child-rearing, their tolerance of foreigners, gays and lesbians and their attitudes toward science and technology. What is driving these changes? One body of theory argues that survival is such a central goal that when it is insecure, one's entire life strategy is shaped by the need to maximize economic and physical security. In advanced industrial societies in recent decades, a large segment of the population has grown up taking survival for granted, leading them to give increasingly high priority to self-expression, individual autonomy and quality of life issues. This body of theory has helped shape the design of the WVS surveys, and will use the data from the new wave of surveys to test and develop it further. But the content of these surveys has also been shaped by scores of people from all six inhabited continents, and the surveys tap a variety of other concerns ranging from the evolution of social capital and confidence in institutions to the factors underlying cultural and technological creativity, to changing public attitudes toward science and technology. Broader impacts World Value Survey data are used by numerous researchers to analyze social change. In addition to producing hundreds of scholarly books and articles, findings from the WVS have been presented to a wider audience through articles in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's Magazine, Time and Newsweek. The WVS provides a collective resource that has been used by thousands of social scientists. From October through December 2005, 33,557 students and scholars visited the World Values Survey web site, and 3,249 individuals downloaded data from these surveys. These data have also been used for instructional purposes by many social scientists, and as a supplement to textbooks in sociology, American government, comparative politics and anthropology. According to one publisher, over 50,000 students per year use WVS data with their textbooks.