Code and data for my Master Thesis investigating how cultural contexts moderate the link between personal values and attitudes toward homosexuality. Based on European Social Survey (ESS) data from 24 countries, the project employs multi-level modeling to test the normative threat framework in a cross-national context.
Across Europe, public opinion on homosexuality is increasingly divided, a divergence that points to the deep-seated influence of personal values and the cultural contexts that shape them. Previous research, often guided by Schwartz’s theory of basic human values, has established that individual priorities such as universalism and openness to change are linked to tolerant attitudes, while conservation and power values are associated with prejudice. However, studies have largely focused on legal or socio-structural indicators of national context, leaving the direct moderating role of shared cultural values underexplored. This thesis, therefore, addresses the question of how the cultural value context of a country shapes the relationship between individuals' values and their attitudes towards homosexuality. Here, using multi-level analysis of European Social Survey data from 24 countries, it is shown that a nation's cultural context functions not as a direct predictor of attitudes, but as a key moderator of individual value expression. The analysis reveals that the positive association between pro-tolerant values (universalism and openness to change) and favorable attitudes towards homosexuality is significantly more pronounced in 'conservative' cultural contexts. This finding supports a normative threat framework, where individuals may express their personal values more strongly when they conflict with the dominant cultural environment. It refines previous models by demonstrating that culture's influence is interactive rather than additive and reveals the instability of other effects, with one interaction for power values being dismissed as a statistical artifact driven by a single influential country. These results underscore that the translation of personal values into social attitudes is highly context-dependent. This thesis highlights the critical need for robust methodological checks in cross-national research and provides a compelling case for future studies to investigate the complex interplay between individual psychology and cultural forces.
Unfortunately, I am unable to provide you with the European Social Survey dataset. Information on how to obtain the dataset can be found in the README.md file in the 0_data folder.
Link to ESS Disclaimer: https://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/contact/disclaimer