title: Are virtues national, supranational, or universal?
abstract: Many studies investigated cultural differences in values, most notably by Hofstede and Schwarz. Relatively few have focused on virtues, a related and important concept in contemporary social science. The present paper examines the similarities and differences between nations, or blocks of - culturally related - nations on the perceived importance of virtues. Adults (N = 2.809 students) from 14 countries were asked to freely mention which virtues they found important to practice in daily life, and next to rate a list of 15 virtues, which reflect the most frequently mentioned categories in The Netherlands, as found in a previous study. The 14 nations included the United States, Mexico, nine European and three Asian nations. For the free-listed virtues, we compared the top-ten lists of most frequently mentioned virtues across the nations. We used a correspondence analysis on the frequency table to assess the relationships between the virtues and nations. For the 15 virtues ratings, a MANOVA, and follow-up ANOVA's were used to examine effects of nation, age, gender and religion. We found strong evidence for relationships between nations and blocks of culturally related nations and the importance attached to various virtues. There appear to be some country specific virtues, such as generosity in France, but also some relatively universal virtues, most notably honesty, respect, and kindness.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology Grote Kruisstraat, University of Groningen, Groningen 2/1, Kragujevac, 9712 TS Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jan Pieter
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: van Oudenhoven
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology Grote Kruisstraat, University of Groningen, Groningen 2/1, Kragujevac, 9712 TS Netherlands.
authors.forename: Boele
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: de Raad
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology Grote Kruisstraat, University of Groningen, Groningen 2/1, Kragujevac, 9712 TS Netherlands.
authors.forename: Marieke E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Timmerman
authors.affiliation: Université Lille Nord de France, Lille, France.
authors.forename: Françoise
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Askevis-Leherpeux
authors.affiliation: Warsaw School of Social Psychology, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Pawel
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Boski
authors.affiliation: Universitat de Valéncia, Av Blasco Ibáñez, Valencia, 13 46010 Spain.
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Carmona
authors.affiliation: Birla Institute of Technology and Science, BITS, Pilani, Rajasthan 333031 India.
authors.forename: Rajneesh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Choubisa
authors.affiliation: Ibero-American University, Prolongación Paseo de la Reforma No. 880, Lomas de Santa, Fe 01219 Mexico.
authors.forename: Alejandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Del Carmen Dominguez
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.
authors.forename: Hege H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Bye
authors.affiliation: Centre for Intercultural Media Research, Kragujevac, Illinois USA.
authors.forename: Anastacia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kurylo
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology Grote Kruisstraat, University of Groningen, Groningen 2/1, Kragujevac, 9712 TS Netherlands.
authors.forename: Cornelia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lahmann
authors.affiliation: University of Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Khairul
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mastor
authors.affiliation: University of Sheffield, Western Bank, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S10 2TN UK.
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Selenko
authors.affiliation: Masaryk University Brno, Kamenice 126/3, 625 00 Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Alena
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Slezáčková
authors.affiliation: Bethel University St Paul, 3900 Bethel Dr, St Paul, MN 55112 USA.
authors.forename: Ripley
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: University of Sussex, Brighton, BN 1 9RH UK.
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tip
authors.affiliation: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kragujevac, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yik