WEBVTT

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Hello everybody.

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I'm here tonight to share with you

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two of the most fundamental
insights of my research,

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of which I truly believe
many more people should know about.

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First, humanity as a whole

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has over the last couple
of decades experienced

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a massive and actually unprecedented
transformation of moral values.

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Second, and even more importantly,
this transformation is a good thing,

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because it brings to the surface
the better moral qualities of our species.

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Well, hearing that, you might think,

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"This person must live
in a different reality."

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Haven't I heard about Brexit, Trump,

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rising populism, right-wing extremism,

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global terrorism,
religious fundamentalism,

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and all the other indications
of our moral decline?

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Indeed, influential critics
tried to convince us since the ages

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that our undeniable technological progress

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is counteracted by a moral digression,

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which opens a growing discrepancy

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between our technological capacities
and our moral qualities.

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The problem of the critics, however,

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is they never proved their point
by systematic evidence through hard facts.

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What they usually do
is cherry-picking examples

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that fit their claims,
but leaving out others that don't.

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Let's try a different approach.

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Let's have a look
at a collection of systematic data

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of what people from all corners
around the world

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think is morally right or wrong.

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That data collection
exists for several decades,

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so what we can do, as well,
is look at change over time,

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if there is any, and then if,
in what direction is it going.

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The data collection I'm referring to
is knows as the World Values Survey.

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If you're interested in the details
and how this study is conducted,

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you can go at their website,
which is on display here.

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In blue colors, we see
the countries in the world

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that have been surveyed at least once
by the World Values Survey.

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This is more than 100 countries.

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But more importantly,

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we cover in each global region
the biggest national population.

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We have China, and Japan, in East Asia.

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We have India, Indonesia, in South Asia.

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We have Nigeria and South Africa,
in Sub-Saharan Africa.

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We have Egypt, Iran, Turkey
in the Middle East.

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We have the US
in North America, of course.

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We have Brazil and Argentina covered
in South America, and so on and so forth.

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So we can claim that our data represent

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more than 90% of the world population,

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which is significant.

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We find in this data
a whole host of moral differences

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between people and between entire nations.

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But, we sifted through this data
for many years, and it turns out

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that most of these differences
boil down to just two,

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just two key domains
of cultural variation.

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One of them you see
on the horizontal axis,

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where it spans a continuum
from sacred to secular values.

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Populations on the left end emphasize

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the sacred sources
of authority, especially religion,

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but also the nation,
the state, the family.

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Populations on the right
have a secular distance

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to these sources of authority,
especially, again, religion.

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The second dimension
is on the vertical axis,

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and it spans a polarity

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between patriarchal
and emancipative values.

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At the lower end, at the patriarchal end,

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populations emphasize
male superiority over women

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in the areas of education,
in the areas of access to jobs,

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and in the areas of political power.

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They also emphasize strict authority
of parents over their children

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and such things as strict discipline,
law and order, and related things.

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Populations at the upper end,
at the emancipative end,

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emphasize women's equality to men.

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Child autonomy, self-determination,
and democratic voice

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is part of what they emphasize.

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You see, there is
a lot of countries covered here,

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but another interesting point
is that these many nations cluster

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into a much smaller number
of what we call "culture zones,"

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which map on these
cultural differences, as well,

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as you have seen before.

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We colored blue
the Western cultural zones,

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and it's apparent that they differ
from the non-Western culture zones,

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especially on the dimension 
of patriarchal versus emancipative values,

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where the Western culture
is actually defined, in a sense,

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by an emphasis on emancipation much more
than other cultural zones in the world,

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and even the Protestant West
sticks even more out here,

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and the biggest cultural distance 
that we find

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is between the Protestant West
and the Islamic world,

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with many people in the Islamic world

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emphasizing sacred values
and patriarchal values,

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and most of the people
in the Protestant West

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emphasizing secular values,
and especially emancipative values.

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Scholars usually consider
such cultural distances, or differences,

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as a constant, as enduring traits
of national mentalities.

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This overlooks, however, how much dynamics
there was over recent decades

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in these moral values.

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Surprisingly, all cultural zones
of the world have uniformly moved

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in the same direction.

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Even the Islamic world,
even in Sub-Saharan Africa,

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we see a movement towards more secular,

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and especially towards
more emancipative values.

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On the other hand, it is also clear
that the Western cultures

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made a much farther space
in that direction,

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so their move is even more pronounced,

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which means that the emancipatory outlook
of Western culture is nowadays

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even more pronounced
than it already has been decades ago.

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So, the fact that all cultural zones
are moving in the same direction

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does not lead to convergence.

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Cultural differences
have actually become bigger,

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which is an issue of conflict.

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Looking at the forces
that might be driving this change

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towards emancipative values,
we get a hint here.

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We see knowledge economies,
which are those countries

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that obtain their wealth
from high-end products and services.

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We have industrial economies,
which are those countries

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that obtain their wealth
from cheap workbench production.

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So, those ones into 
which we outsource our labor a lot.

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And we have agrarian/oil economies,

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obtaining their wealth
from natural products and raw materials.

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A criterion distinguishing these economies
is what I call the enlightenment forces,

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which is: education,
knowledge, and science.

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These enlightenment forces
are the most pronounced,

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most powerful, in the knowledge economies,
more so than in the industrial economies,

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which, in turn, have them more powerful
than agrarian and oil economies.

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And here we can see that it is worthwhile
to send our children into school

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and to universities and to college,
and let them enjoy education.

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It is a transformative force.

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In all three types of economies,

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we see that people
who have obtained more education

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emphasize emancipative values
more strongly.

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Again, this is more pronounced
in knowledge economies,

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where the enlightenment forces
are most powerful.

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If you ask yourself the question:

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is that move towards
stronger emancipative values,

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is this something good, is this positive?

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From the viewpoint
of democracy, it certainly is.

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Because here we can see
that over the decades, from 1950 to 2010,

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culture zones have made a shift

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from more autocratic
to more democratic circumstances,

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to about the extent
to which their populations

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have shifted from patriarchal
to emancipative values.

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You can actually see
that oftentimes, a move to the right -

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that means, towards
more emancipative values -

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precedes a move upward,

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which suggests
that the value change is causal

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for the subsequent change in institutions,

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and not the other way around.

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An even more fundamental reason
why we can consider

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the rise of emancipative values
as a force of enlightenment,

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is these values tendency

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to produce what I call
"moral universalism."

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That is, the widening
of our circles of solidarity

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to an extent to an outer rim
planet in humanity,

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where the concerns about these things
defy group divisions,

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because everyone is included.

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Patriarchal values, by contrast,

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favor the opposite moral tendency
towards moral parochialism.

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What is that?

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That means the narrowing down
of the solidarity circle.

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"My nation first", "America first" -

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these are the slogans that depict
that moral tendency.

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Here we can see the shift from 
patriarchal to emancipative values

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is indeed related to a shift
from moral parochialism

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to moral universalism,

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through the expansion
of our circles of solidarity,

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of our empathy for others.

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This is measured here, for example,

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by environmental concern
about global change

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and by fighting poverty in the world.

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So, the concern for the planet
and for humanity is covered here.

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But there are also problems.

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The rise of emancipative values
has also created cultural conflict

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over moral universalism
versus parochialism.

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This applies to a particular segment
of Western electorates.

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There is a segment of the population

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that has been left behind
by the emancipatory mainstream,

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that does not get a lot of education,

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and accordingly is working
in low-skilled manual jobs

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that are threatened
to be outsourced to other countries.

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The working class, to simplify it.

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This working class
in the economic conflict

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between social security
and market competition,

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it's located on the left.

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Also, ideologically on the left,
they are in favor of social security,

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and this is where usually leftist parties,
social democratic parties,

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the Democratic Party in the US
contacts, picks these voters up.

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However, on the moral conflict
between universalism and parochialism,

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they're on the parochial end.

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This is a moral conflict;
this is not an economic conflict.

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These people want to narrow
the circle of solidarity.

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Again, "My nation first,"
"Make America great again."

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And let no immigrants
in anymore, build a wall.

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This is parochialism, and these people
are located there for reasons.

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This is where now
the rising forces of populism,

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Vlaams Blok and Front national in France,

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the Liberal Party in Austria, where they,

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including Trump in the United States,
pick these people up as their voters.

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The other area
of emerging cultural conflict

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over issues of emancipation
is immigration.

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Especially immigration
from non-Western populations

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into Western countries.

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I exemplify this here
at the case of Germany,

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which is a very typical
post-industrial Western society.

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The left bar shows
that the native, host population

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born in Germany, German citizens,

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they score very high
on emancipative values.

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Sixty-two percent of this population

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emphasizes this type of values strongly.

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First-generation immigrants,
which is the lower bar on the right side,

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are very, very different.

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They emphasize these values
not even to 20% of this group,

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and these are immigrants
from non-Western cultures.

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Of course, it creates
a cultural gap over these issues,

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and these are important lifestyle issues.

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Gender equality,
tolerance of homosexuality,

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all these issues are related to that.

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Given the centrality
that emancipative values have

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for a healthy democracy,

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this is not trivial.

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This is a challenge, and we need
to face it in order to tackle it.

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The good news, however,
is we can master the challenge,

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because it's also obvious from the data

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- and these are the three bars
in the middle -

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that second-generation immigrants
already are very close

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in their emphasis on emancipative values
where the host population is.

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So obviously, socialization
in this country does work.

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Which relates us to the point:

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can we strengthen

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the effectiveness and the pace
of that socialization process?

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Can we do that?

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And this relates me to my final point,
which is actually a call for action.

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I believe what we need to do

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is to thoroughly rethink
our civic education programs

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and to target them particularly
to the immigrant population.

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Most importantly, what we also need
to do while doing this,

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is to place the psychology
of emancipative values center stage

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in the curriculum of these programs.

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(Applause)