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Cross-Cultural Research
DOI: 10.1177/10693971093349562009;
2009; 43; 230 originally published online May 19,Cross-Cultural ResearchMichael Minkov
Life Quality Judgments and Social OpinionsNations With More Dialectical Selves Exhibit Lower Polarization in
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232 Cross-Cultural Research
with two contradictory arguments, they tend to accept both. If this is so,
societies whose members tend to have dialectical selves, such as those of
China and other East Asian countries, should be characterized by an avoid-ance of strongly expressed opinions, especially on matters that may cause
social conflict. The reason for this is that if two parties formulate their opin-
ions in strong terms and the opinions turn out to contradict one another, it is
less easy to reconcile them in a dialectical way than if they were moderately
expressed. The way in which people word their opinions is especially impor-
tant in the public and political sphere. For example, if one has described a
national government as very good, this position cannot be easily reconciled
with somebody elses view that the same government is very bad. Dialecticalmindsets can be expected to avoid such polarized statements. Instead, they
would probably prefer more moderate descriptions, such as somewhat good
and somewhat bad, because if a public argument starts from these two plat-
forms, it is easier to achieve some sort of reconciliation.
Hypothesis
People in societies that are characterized by greater personal (individual-level) dialecticism should have a greater tendency to refrain from voicing
strong opinions. For instance, quality judgments such as very good and
very bad should be avoided. Hence, these societies should have lower
polarization of quality judgments about socially important issues.
To validate this hypothesis, it is necessary to show a high negative cor-
relation between aggregate national measurements of individual-level dia-
lecticism and measurements of nation-level polarization in the expression
of quality judgments.
Importance of the Present Study
There is substantial anecdotal evidence that when cultural differences in
the way that people express themselves are poorly understood, the result
can be utmost frustration. The following example is from a televised inter-
view with Sonys late founder and president, A. Morita, led by a well-
known Japanese commentator, S. Shiroyama:
Shiroyama: Ive heard that one of our prime ministers was on his way to the
US for the first time and asked you for advice, and you suggested the
critical thing was to start right out with a yes or no, followed by a brief
explanation.
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234 Cross-Cultural Research
continents. Surveying 5,886 respondents, they collected self-reported fre-
quencies of pleasant emotions (FPE) and frequencies of unpleasant emo-
tions (FUE) over 1 month and calculated correlations between the FPE andthe FUE. They found that these correlations tended to be negative in almost
all nations. In other words, it is not typical for people anywhere in the
world to have frequent experiences of mixed feelings, such as happy and
sad, within a short period. However, the negative correlations between
FPE and FUE were higher in some nations than in others. They were rela-
tively high among Americans, but the highest values were those of
Egyptians (.49). The opposite extreme of this ranking was occupied by
Hong Kong Chinese, Japanese, Thais, Nepalese, and Mainland Chinese.They were the only ones that did not have negative correlations but weakly
positive. The study did not demonstrate strong emotional dialecticism any-
where in the world. It revealed the opposite: nondialecticism, which could
also be called absolutism. Nevertheless, East Asians were least likely to be
nondialectical or absolutist. They were the ones who exhibited the lowest
disassociation between pleasant and unpleasant feelings. For this reason,
Shimmack et al. considered their FPE-FUE correlations as a measurement
of relative individual-level dialecticism.The FPE-FUE correlations correlate with Hofstedes (2001) individual-
ism indexes at .36 (p=.049, n=30) and with Project GLOBEs in-group
individualism practices indexes (Gelfand, Bhawuk, Nishii, & Bechtold,
2004) at .32 (p=.096, n=29). These low correlations, the second of which
is also statistically insignificant, mean that personal dialecticism cannot be
satisfactorily explained as a function of cultural collectivism. Because all
of the nations that scored high on the FPE-FUE index and have positive
scores share a Buddhist tradition, Shimmack et al. (2002) came to the con-
clusion that another explanation is more appropriate: The roots of dialecti-
cism should be sought in Buddhist philosophy.
Whatever the origin of the national differences in personal dialecticism,
they cannot be predicted on the basis of differences in individualism versus
collectivism and the latter dimension cannot be used as a proxy for the
former. This leaves only Shimmack et al.s (2002) FPE-FUE correlations as
a potential measurement of national differences in personal dialecticism.
Can this measurement be validated? Does it correlate with other meaning-
ful constructs in a way that suggests it does reflect something associatedwith dialecticism as it is conceptualized in the academic literature?
There are two large-scale studies that yield satisfactory and meaningful
correlations with Shimmack et al.s (2002) FPE-FUE. The first one was car-
ried out by the Chinese Culture Connection (1987). It describes a cultural
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Minkov / Dialectical Selves and Life Quality 235
dimension called Confucian work dynamism, later renamed long-term ori-
entation(LTO) by Hofstede (2001). The country ranking produces a com-
pact East Asian cluster at one of the dimensions poles versus an oppositepole grouping diverse nationsPakistan, Nigeria, and the Philippines
with the Anglo countries clearly gravitating in that direction. According to
that study, the most salient characteristic of the East Asian pole is a low
importance of personal steadiness, which can be interpreted as having a
flexible rather than a stable and invariant self. There is a considerable lit-
erature showing that East Asians are characterized by lower self-stability
and self-consistency and higher self-flexibility than North Americans. The
latter tend to believe that they possess and describe themselves in terms ofstable personal characteristics that change little across situations, whereas
the opposite is true of East Asians (Bond & Cheung, 1983; Choi & Choi,
2002; Heine, 2001; Kanagawa, Cross, & Markus, 2001; Markus & Kitayama,
1991; Suh, 2002). It should not be difficult to understand why self-flexibility
is associated with personal dialecticism. A person with a flexible self would
exhibit behaviors that change across situations. Also, such a person would
not be unlikely to make statements such as I am lenient with my work
subordinates but strict with my children. For this person, lenient and strictare not mutually exclusive but form a dialectical pair: One can be both,
depending on the situation. Self-descriptions of this type are not atypical
among East Asians (Choi & Choi, 2002) but are rather unnatural in a North
American context. American culture does not encourage shifting character-
istics, inconsistent behaviors, and ambiguous self-portrayals.
Across 16 common cases, LTO (indexes in Hofstede, 2001) correlates
with the FPE-FUE correlations at .68 (p=.004). Societies with higher per-
sonal dialecticism are characterized by lower personal steadiness or stabil-
ity. These two sets of indexesFPE-FUE and LTOare bound by a
common factor.
The other study is by Minkov (2007), who used data from the World
Values Survey (WVS, 2006) to extract a cultural dimension underpinned by
differences in pride and religiousness. The dimension was called monumen-
talism versus flexumility, referring to the fact that the self in the highest
scoring societiesthe Arab nationscan metaphorically be likened to a
proud and stable monolithic monument, whereas the lowest scorersEast
Asians and East Europeansexhibit the opposite tendency: humility andflexibility. In that study, a WVS item that measures the importance of reli-
gion was taken as a proxy for an ecological (nation-level) measurement of
self-stability because religions such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
emphasize the importance of adhering to strong and immutable values and
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236 Cross-Cultural Research
beliefs. The monumentalism scores in Minkov correlate with the FPE-FUE
correlations at .60 (p=.002, n=24) and with LTO at .68 (p=.004, n=16).
Thus, more monumentalist (and hence more religious) societies have lowerpersonal dialecticism.
The high correlations between FPE-FUE, LTO, and monumentalism sug-
gest that all three measure something similar, associated with higher personal
dialecticism and self-flexibility versus higher absolutism and self-stability.
Of these three measurements, it is the FPE-FUE correlations that most
closely reflect the concept of personal dialecticism as described in the aca-
demic literature. These correlations will be used in this study as the main
measurement of personal dialecticism aggregated at the national level.
Measurements of Social Polarization
in Life Quality Judgments and Social Opinions
The Pew Research Center (PRC) is a U.S. research agency that studies
political moods in the United States. In 2002 and in 2007 it carried out
cross-cultural studies in 44 and 47 nations on all continents, using mostly
nationally representative samples, especially in the second case (PRC,2007). Among other things, the PRC asks the respondents to make quality
judgments. Quality judgments can be defined as expressions of opinions
about the quality of situations, phenomena, individuals, or groups of peo-
ple. They may be presented in different formats, such as:
X is good/bad.
I am satisfied/dissatisfied with X.
I agree/disagree that X is good/bad.
It is also possible to make quality judgments about hypothetical situa-
tions, such as:
X would be good.
It would be good if X did Y.
Regardless of the different formats and wordings, all judgments are
statements in which somethingreal or hypotheticalis evaluated aspositive or negative.
The Pew Research Center (2007) study contains a high number of qual-
ity judgment items. The relevant ones are reproduced in the appendix.
There are also other quality judgment items in that PRC study. They have
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Minkov / Dialectical Selves and Life Quality 237
been left out of this analysis either because the questions were not asked in
all PRC countries or because they are not scored on Likert scales.
Polarization in the expression of quality judgments can be measuredstarting from the following logic. The highest possible degree of polariza-
tion in a particular country is when 50% of all respondents in it have
chosen the positive extreme position on a Likert scale, such as very good,
and 50% have chosen the negative extreme, such as very bad. A society
that exhibits this pattern is more polarized than one where the pattern is
for instance 70% very bad versus 30% very good. This means that to
measure the degree of polarization for each country and for each item, we
should multiply the percentages of respondents who have chosen thepositive extreme of each item by the percentages of respondents who
have chosen the negative extreme. Adding up the two values would not
create the desired effect because a 50-50 split would yield the same sum
as a 70-30 split or a 90-10 split, although these do not reflect the same
degree of polarization. If the extremes are multiplied, the maximum pos-
sible score for each item is 50 50 =250. This maximum score can be
obtained only if the split is 50-50, that is, when the highest polarization is
observed.In a very few cases, the percentages of respondents in some countries
who have chosen an extreme answer is 0. Because multiplication by 0
results in a value of 0 regardless of the number that is multiplied by 0, those
few 0 values were replaces by a value of 1.
The total number of PRC items that seem appropriate for this study is
17. Before the multiplication of the percentages of respondents who have
chosen extreme positions, it is necessary to verify how many factors the 34
extremes of the 17 items form. A small number of factorsone or two
would mean that there is not much real diversity across the selected items
and the answers do not reflect broad cultural patterns of expression of qual-
ity judgments on diverse matters but are a reaction to a limited set of cor-
related stimuli.
The factor analysis of the 34 extremes yielded three factors with eigen-
values exceeding 1.00, each of them explaining at least 10% of the total
variance. Cumulatively, these three factors explain 49.78% of the total vari-
ance. There were also six weaker factors with eigenvalues exceeding 1.00
but explaining less than 10% of the variance each. Nevertheless, cumula-tively they explain another 31% of the total variance. Thus, the diversity
captured by the 34 extremes of the 17 items appears to be vast and accept-
able for general conclusions.
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Results
After the multiplication products (Positive Extreme Negative Extreme)for the 17 pairs of items were obtained, they were added up for each nation.
This resulted in indexes for quality judgment polarization (vs. moderation)
for 47 countries and provinces, presented in Table 1.
These polarization indexes correlate with the FPE-FUE correlations
(Schimmack et al., 2002) at .66 (p=.003, n=18). The hypothesis of this
study is validated: Members of nations with more dialectical selves exhibit
greater avoidance of polarized quality judgments.
Furthermore, the polarization indexes correlate with long-term orienta-tion (Hofstede, 2001) at .81 (p=.000, n=14) and with monumentalism
(Minkov, 2007) at .60 (p =.002, n=27). Although these two constructs are
neither direct nor pure measurements of dialecticism at either the individual
or ecological level, they are partial reflections of that construct at the eco-
logical level and provide additional validation for the polarization indexes
by demonstrating that they reflect something real and meaningful.
The World Values Survey Association (2008) released its latest wave of
nationally representative surveys of values, beliefs, and perceptions acrosssome 50 nations (not all questions have been asked in all countries). Question
v65 asks the respondents whether they seek to be themselves or prefer to fol-
low others. The East Asian countries form a clear cluster: They have the
lowest percentages of people who agree strongly that they prefer the first
option. Across 29 common cases, the index in Table 1 in this study correlates
with the percentages who agree strongly that they seek to be themselves at
.58 (p=.001). Thus, nations with higher polarization have lower percentages
of people who prefer to follow others. Obviously, in these nations it is more
important to stand ones ground than adapt to other people.
McCrae, Terraciano, Realo, and Allik (2007) reported respondents
descriptions of the mean personality traits (the 30 main facets of the five
personality dimensions in the five factor model) of their own fellow citi-
zens. Results are available for 49 nations and ethnic groups. The authors
believed that these descriptions do not contain any truth, but there are
diverging opinions on the matter (Heine, Buchtel, & Norenzayan, 2008;
Minkov, 2009). There is no doubt that laypeoples descriptions of the pre-
vailing personality or culture in their own country can sometimes begrossly inaccurate, but that does not mean that it is always so.
The indexes in Table 1 correlate significantly and meaningfully with the
following personality facets in McCrae et al. (2007):
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Minkov / Dialectical Selves and Life Quality 239
Table 1
Social Polarization: Indexes for 47 Countries and Provinces
Eastern
Middle Europe Europe
East and and
Sub and English- Former
Latin Saharan North Speaking Soviet
Rank America Africa Africa World Union Asia Index
1 Kuwait 6,264
2 Palestine 5,558
territory 3 Tanzania 4,785
4 Egypt 4,475
5 Jordan 4,402
6 Pakistan 4,222
7 South 4,198
Africa
8 United 3,923
States
9 Mali 3,921
10 Nigeria 3,84511 France 3,754
12 Lebanon 3,600
13 Uganda 3,576
14 Sweden 3,579
15 Ivory 3,525
Coast
16 Germany 3,262
17 Turkey 3,140
18 Senegal 2,301
19 India 3,04520 Canada 2,953
21 Kenya 2,990
22-23 Ethiopia Bangladesh 2,940
24 Venezuela 2,888
25 Argentina 2,716
26 Morocco 2,707
27 United 2,685
Kingdom
28 Ukraine 2,668
29 Ghana 2,66330 Israel 2,631
31 Peru 2,487
32 Slovakia 2,330
33 Russia 2,278
(continued)
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240 Cross-Cultural Research
assertiveness: r=.51,p
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Minkov / Dialectical Selves and Life Quality 241
methods, they all yield correlations with the indexes in Table 1 that are
close to 0. The conclusion is that the indexes in Table 1 are not associated
with national wealth in any way.
Discussion
This study showed that societies whose members are more likely to have
dialectical selves are also more likely to suppress the expression of strongly
formulated quality judgments that are likely to cause social polarization.
This finding is important because it demonstrates that when personalitycharacteristics are aggregated at the national level, the resulting differences
in the national scores can predict societal differences. The finding supports
Hofstede and McCrae (2004), who arrived at the same conclusion.
This study has shown that Latin Americans are not characterized by strong
polarization in quality judgments. In the case of most PRC items, the percent-
ages of Latin Americans who have chosen an extreme are similar to those of
East Europeans and lower than the percentages of West Europeans, let alone
Arabs. Even if the extremes were not multiplied, Latin Americans would nothave a high polarization score, meaning that no extreme response style would
be observed in their answers. A previous PRC study, done in 2002, evidences
the same pattern. This is an interesting finding. Latin Americans are tradition-
ally viewed as prone to extreme response style when presented with Likert
scales. They are said to prefer extremes, especially when the scale range is
narrow: 4 of 5 points rather than 10 (Hanges & Dickson, 2004; Hofstede,
2001; Hui & Triandis, 1989). However, it has not been demonstrated that this
effect occurs in all circumstances. The conclusion is that different cultures
may generate different response styles but these may vary according to the
context. Latin Americans may state their values in a strong way, but they
are quite moderate when they have to make quality judgments. On the other
hand, East Asians do seem to avoid extremes in most circumstances.
Studies that discuss cultural dimensions should address the issue of their
origins. At first glance, the most absolutist and polarized nations appear to
be Muslim, whereas the most dialectical and least polarized ones have a
Buddhist tradition. However, this dichotomy cannot provide a good expla-
nation because Indonesia and Malaysia have been Muslim countries forcenturies, yet they are characterized by relatively dialectical feelings and
low polarization in quality judgments. The highest and lowest scoring
countries are differentiated by something that probably has little to do with
the type of religion.
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242 Cross-Cultural Research
The most dialectical and least polarized cultures share a millennia-old tra-
dition of wet rice cultivation. This type of agriculture is described as follows:
Historically, rice cultivation has been a collective enterprise. The investment
and shaping of the landscape that are needed for the ponding system (ter-
races) require collective organization within the community. Water manage-
ment also relies on collective interest: crop and water calendars must be
organized for large blocks of fields in order to manage water efficiently and
organize such work as land preparation, transportation and drying for har-
vesting. (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2004)
The irrigation system was typically considered common property andthe members of the community, which often included several villages, were
obliged to provide labor and materials for its maintenance (Cohen &
Pearson, 1998). In addition, a labor exchange system was practiced in peri-
ods of rice transplantation and rice harvesting: Work parties, consisting of
several households, worked on the rice fields of each of the households
(Tatsuro, 2006).
In cultures where the whole communitys welfare is dependent on the
complex management of common property and the achievement of sharedgoals, harmony and cooperation are essential. Expression of strong opin-
ions is undesirable because they may clash with somebody elses dissenting
strong opinion, eventually resulting in factions, coalitions, social polariza-
tion, and conflict. The best strategy to maintain harmony and cooperation
is to avoid extreme statements and to concur with others, at least partly,
even if that means accepting seemingly contradictory views.
The societies with the highest polarization in Table 1those whose index
exceeds 4,000share a pastoralist past. That way of life has a strong tradi-
tion in East Africa and the region that extends from North Africa through the
Middle East, Iran, and Afghanistan to Central Asia and Pakistan (Haviland,
1990; Oswalt, 1986). In 1860, Tunisia had about 600,000 nomadic pastoral-
ists versus 500,000 settled people (some of whom may also have practiced
pastoralism), whereas their estimated number in Saudi Arabia on the eve of
the Second World War was 3 million (Findlay, 1994). Pastoralism still rep-
resents a strong sector of the economies of the Saharan countries and those
of East Africa (Hatfield & Davies, 2006). It accounts for more than 80% of
agricultural GDP in countries such as Niger and Sudan (Hatfield & Davies,2006). As late as 1970, the percentages of nomadic pastoralists in Mauritania
and Sudan were substantial: 45% and 13%, respectively (Findlay, 1994).
Pastoralism was practiced also by some subSaharan African tribes outside
East Africa, such as the South African Zulu (Chanaiwa, 1980).
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Minkov / Dialectical Selves and Life Quality 243
The political organization of pastoralist societies is nearly always a hier-
archical chiefdom rather than egalitarian villages (Encyclopedia Britannica,
2008). Unlike intensive agriculture, animal husbandry creates a good basisfor individual competition: Individuals and families with more animals
enjoy higher prestige. Pastoralism is also associated with higher polygyny
rates (Marlowe, 2000) than intensive agriculture, and polygyny fosters
competition for women. In sum, compared to societies of intensive agricul-
turalists, those of pastoralists are more oriented toward competition and
have a lower emphasis on harmony and cooperation. The biblical story of
Jacob and Esau attests that strong competition in a pastoralist society is
possible even between brothers.Besides, most nomadic pastoralists tend to form strongly oppositional
identities with respect to most out-groups and consider them unclean or
unhealthy (Phillips, 2001, p. 46). For instance, the Tahtacipastoralist
nomads in modern Turkeywill wash their cups 40 times if Turks have
drunk from them (Phillips, 2001). Thus, nomadic pastoralists seem used to
opposition and polarization with respect to out-groups.
Furthermore, Nisbett (1996) has shown that animal herders all over the
world tend to be characterized by greater verbal and physical assertivenessthan agriculturalists because they need to protect their animals from
thefta common phenomenon among herders. As a result, pastoralists
quarrel and fight more often. Nisbett quoted ethnographic studies according
to which in some pastoralist societies a young shepherds first public quar-
rel is a critical moment in the development of his reputation. Tension
between nomads and surrounding populations is also very common
(Phillips, 2001), which explains why the former have felt a need to be out-
spoken and stand their ground, not only as individuals but also as a group.
Nomadic pastoralists can be a politically volatile force (Findlay, 1994),
capable of strong action. The history of Morocco provides many examples
of sultans being replaced by rebellious tribal leaders of nomads, whereas
uprisings by sedentary agriculturalists in that country have usually been far
less successful (Findlay, 1994).
Edgerton (1974) provided compelling evidence for a number of differ-
ences between pastoralists and farmers that are relevant to this discussion.
He studied four tribes in Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda, each of which
consisted of both pastoralists and farmers. In this way, the ethnic variablewas controlled for. Edgerton found that pastoralists were more conflict
oriented. Also, farmers were more likely to recall insults but they defined
these as oblique acts: an act of omission, an overheard remark, or an inter-
preted intention to insult somebody. When pastoralists recalled insults, they
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244 Cross-Cultural Research
typically referred to a direct verbal affront in a face-to-face situation.
Edgertons study shows that farmers are more prudent in their communica-
tion style, whereas pastoralists are more likely to express themselves instrong terms, even at the risk of clashing with somebody.
In sum, pastoralism encourages the expression of a strong stance in
unambiguous terms and an us versus them philosophy, coupled with
forceful action. Along with other factors, this may have contributed to the
fact that attempts to implement political freedom and a democracy of sorts
in Arab countries, such as Lebanon, Algeria, Palestine, and Iraq, have
invariably resulted in large-scale armed conflicts and civil war.
It is important to reiterate that the cultural differences created by the twodifferent economieswet rice cultivation versus pastoralismshould not be
misinterpreted as differences in collectivism versus individualism in the sense
of the dimension that clearly differentiates today the cultures of the poor
nations from those of the West. The cultures of the poor nations are invariably
characterized by close-knit in-groups and treatment of people on the basis
of their group membership, whereas the members of Western nations tend
to emphasize the importance of treating people as individuals without privi-
leges for any particular group (Minkov, 2007). If collectivism versus indi-vidualism is conceptualized in this way on the basis of the overwhelming
evidence from the WVS and other sources (Minkov, 2007), only todays rich
Western nations are strongly individualist, although some other rich nations,
such as Japan, are beginning to gravitate in the same direction. Pastoralist
societies are strongly collectivist. This explains why the polarization indexes
in Table 1 and the WVS item that measures ones willingness to be ones self
versus following others do not correlate significantly with any reported
nation-level measurements of individualism versus collectivism.
This analysis suggests that the effect of subsistence economies that were
practiced for millennia can still be detected today in respondents who are
overwhelmingly urban residents and are not involved in subsistence economy,
such as the populations of Japan or Kuwait. The idea that aggregate national
personality traits and cultural traits can be extremely durable (Hofstede &
McCrae, 2004) is supported by this study. Switching to a new type of
economy does not immediately delete what has been imprinted in the
human psyche over millennia.
The pastoralism versus rice cultivation split accounts for the differencesbetween the extremes in the country ranking in Table 1 but leaves the other
cases unexplained. The ranking of the Anglo and European nations points
to another factor in that region. Societies that experienced an early shift
from agriculture to industry have more polarized cultures. Industry breeds
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East Asia to follow more than one religion and philosophy at the same time.
Today, China and Vietnam demonstrate another striking example of dialec-
tic reconciliation of seemingly incompatible phenomena: communist gov-ernments that are busily building capitalist economies.
In contrast, the three Middle Eastern religions are strongly absolutist. It
is not possible to follow any of them in conjunction with another one. They
emphasize self-stability: an eternal and immutable individual self that
adheres to strong values and beliefs and rejects anything that is not in
agreement with them. The self also maintains consistency in this life and in
the hereafter, avoids dialectical opposites, and is not afraid of expressing its
position in strong and unambiguous terms.
Appendix
The following items from Pew Research Center (2007) were used in this study.
Judgments About the Quality
of Various Aspects of the Respondents LivesAs I read each of the following, please tell me whether you are very satisfied,
somewhat satisfied, somewhat dissatisfied, or very dissatisfied with this aspect of
your life:
q. 6a: your household income
q. 6b: your family life
q. 6c: your job
Judgments About the Acceptability of Societal Phenomena
Please tell me whether you completely agree, mostly agree, mostly disagree, or
completely disagree with the following statements:
q. 18a: Most people are better off in a free market economy even though some
people are rich and some are poor.1
q. 18c: Protecting the environment should be given priority even if it causes
slower economic growth and some loss of jobs.q. 22a: The (state or government) controls too much of our daily lives.
q. 22b: It is the responsibility of the (state or government) to take care of very
poor people who cant take care of themselves.2
(continued)
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250 Cross-Cultural Research
Michael Minkov is an associate professor of cross-cultural awareness and organizational
behavior, teaching on the University of Portsmouth (UK) programs delivered through its fran-
chisee, International University College, Sofia, Bulgaria. He graduated from Sofia StateUniversity St Kliment Ohridski with a masters degree in linguistics, culture, and literature and
is currently finishing his PhD at the Department of Scandinavian Studies of the same institu-
tion. He is a coauthor, together with Geert Hofstede, Gert Jan Hofstede, and Henk Vinken, of
the 2008 version of the Values Survey Modulea cross-cultural research instrument based on
Hofstedes classical five-dimensional model, enriched with two new dimensions recently pro-
posed by Minkov.
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