title: "Heroes" and "villains" of world history across cultures.
abstract: Emergent properties of global political culture were examined using data from the World History Survey (WHS) involving 6,902 university students in 37 countries evaluating 40 figures from world history. Multidimensional scaling and factor analysis techniques found only limited forms of universality in evaluations across Western, Catholic/Orthodox, Muslim, and Asian country clusters. The highest consensus across cultures involved scientific innovators, with Einstein having the most positive evaluation overall. Peaceful humanitarians like Mother Theresa and Gandhi followed. There was much less cross-cultural consistency in the evaluation of negative figures, led by Hitler, Osama bin Laden, and Saddam Hussein. After more traditional empirical methods (e.g., factor analysis) failed to identify meaningful cross-cultural patterns, Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) was used to identify four global representational profiles: Secular and Religious Idealists were overwhelmingly prevalent in Christian countries, and Political Realists were common in Muslim and Asian countries. We discuss possible consequences and interpretations of these different representational profiles.
authors: Jacobs University Bremen, Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences, Bremen, Germany.
authors: Katja
authors: K
authors: Hanke
authors: Victoria University of Wellington, School of Psychology, Wellington, New Zealand.
authors: James H
authors: JH
authors: Liu
authors: University of Auckland, School of Psychology, Auckland, New Zealand.
authors: Chris G
authors: CG
authors: Sibley
authors: University of the Basque Country, School of Psychology, San Sebastián, Spain.
authors: Dario
authors: D
authors: Paez
authors: Brunel University, School of Social Sciences, London, United Kingdom.
authors: Stanley O
authors: SO
authors: Gaines
authors: Southern Cross University, Department of Psychology, Lismore, Australia.
authors: Gail
authors: G
authors: Moloney
authors: National Singapore University, Institute of Policy Studies, Singapore, Singapore.
authors: Chan-Hoong
authors: CH
authors: Leong
authors: Johannes Kepler University, Department of Social and Economic Psychology, Linz, Austria.
authors: Wolfgang
authors: W
authors: Wagner
authors: Université Libre de Bruxelles, Center for Social and Cultural Psychology, Bruxelles, Belgium.
authors: Laurent
authors: L
authors: Licata
authors: Université Libre de Bruxelles, Center for Social and Cultural Psychology, Bruxelles, Belgium.
authors: Olivier
authors: O
authors: Klein
authors: Saratov State University, Department of Pedagogy and Psychology of Professional Education, Saratov, Russia.
authors: Ilya
authors: I
authors: Garber
authors: University of Bergen, Faculty of Psychology, Bergen, Norway.
authors: Gisela
authors: G
authors: Böhm
authors: University of Toulouse II, Cognition, Langues, Langage et Ergonomie, Toulouse, France.
authors: Denis J
authors: DJ
authors: Hilton
authors: Tilburg University, Department of Cross-Cultural Psychology, Tilburg, Netherlands.
authors: Velichko
authors: V
authors: Valchev
authors: University of Exeter, Medical School, Exeter, United Kingdom.
authors: Sammyh S
authors: SS
authors: Khan
authors: University of Minho, Institute of Social Sciences, Braga, Portugal.
authors: Rosa
authors: R
authors: Cabecinhas
mesh_terms: D003469:Culture; D005197:Famous Persons; D006664:History; D038622:Internationality; D012067:Religion; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D014495:Universities
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