Center for Political Studies
Institute for Social Research
University of Michigan
P.O. Box 1248
Ann Arbor, MI
48106-1248
Voice: (734) 763-1348
Fax: (734) 764-3341
Title
The Human Component of Social Change
Co-PI
none
Direct Source
NSF
Abstract
This proposal seeks funding to cover 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.
Intellectual Merit
Evidence from the first four waves of the World Values Survey demonstrates 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 developed by Inglehart and others (Inglehart, 1977, 1990, 1997, Inglehart and Baker, 2000, Inglehart and Norris, 2003, Norris and Inglehart, 2004, Inglehart and Welzel, 2005) 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 Inglehart, Baker, Norris, Welzel and others 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
The basic values of individuals are changing and these changes have a major impact on a wide range of important societal-level phenomena. They are reshaping the extent to which given societies have gender equality in political, social and economic life, as well as human fertility rates, the role of religion, legislation concerning gays and lesbians, and environmental protection laws. They also seem to have a major influence on the extent to which a society has good governance and democratic institutions; and changing attitudes toward science and technology impact on support for science and the acceptance of such innovations as stem-cell research. In order to make effective policy, it is important for policy makers to be informed about these trends and the reasons underlying them. Numerous researchers have used these data in analyzing 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, the World Values Survey web site was visited by 33,557 students and scholars, 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.