Study title

The series is designed to enable a cross-national, cross-cultural comparison of values and norms on a wide variety of topics and to monitor changes in values and attitudes across the globe. This data collection, representing the fourth wave of surveys carried out by the World Values Survey (WVS) and European Values Survey (EVS) groups, covers 60 countries, with high priority given to obtaining coverage of Islamic societies and African societies, which have rarely been included in cross-national survey research. These surveys cover a broader range of variation than has before been available for analyzing the belief systems of mass publics. They provide data from representative national samples of the publics of 81 societies containing 85 percent of the world's population and covering a full range of variation, from societies with per capita incomes below 300 dollars per year, to societies with per capita incomes of more than 35,000 dollars per year, from long-established democracies to authoritarian states, and from societies with market economies to societies that are in the process of emerging from state-run economies. The surveys cover societies that were historically shaped by a wide variety of religious and cultural traditions, from Christian to Islamic to Confucian to Hindu, and from societies whose culture emphasizes social conformity and group obligations, to societies in which the main emphasis is on human emancipation and self-expression. Broad topics covered in the 1999-2002 waves were work, personal finances, the economy, politics, allocation of resources, contemporary social issues, technology and its impact on society, and traditional values. Respondents were asked whether the following acts were ever justifiable: suicide, cheating on taxes, lying, euthanasia, divorce, and abortion. Respondents were also asked about the groups and associations they belonged to, which ones they worked for voluntarily, the groups they would not want as neighbors, their...