Are the World’s National Cultures Becoming More Similar?

Abstract

Globalization is highlighting existing cultural differences between nations, but what is the future of these differences? We attempt to answer this question by analyzing the evolution of cultural convergence-divergence across 18 select countries representing the existing cross-national cultural diversity across the globe in a balanced way. Using World Values Survey data (28,051 respondents in 18 countries from 1995 to 1998 and 30,453 from the same 18 countries in 2010–2014), we find evidence for a global shift in the direction of cultural traits typical of the rich Western individualist countries. However, different types of traits evolve differently and different national cultures change at different speeds. Thus, we find evidence of global convergence in terms of qualities that parents would like to see in their children (especially a shift away from religion and obedience toward independence and responsibility), divergence in terms of moral ideologies (such as homosexuality, abortion, divorce, and suicide, despite the growing acceptance of these, especially homosexuality), and distance stability in terms of key personal values (such as religion, work, family, friends, and leisure, despite the falling importance of the first two and the growing importance of the last three). Thus, there is no simple single answer to the convergence-divergence question and no evidence allowing us to predict full cultural convergence across the world in the foreseeable future.