Social Attitudes and Value Change

Q. Why have people in high-income democracies become more liberal? (PPE 2013)

Your Reading List for this Week

• De Graaf, N.D. and Evans, G. (1996). Why are the young more postmaterialist? Comparative Political Studies 28(4): 608-635
• Dunlap, Riley E, Aaron M McCright, and Jerrod H Yarosh. 2016. “The Political Divide on Climate Change: Partisan Polarization Widens in the U.S..” Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development 58(5): 4–23.
• Inglehart, Ronald (1990). Culture Shift in Advanced Industrial Society. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Chapter 3 & 5
• Inglehart, Ronald F. 2008. “Changing Values among Western Publics from 1970 to 2006.” West European Politics 31(1-2): 130–146.
• Scott, Ralph. 2022. ‘Does University Make You More Liberal? Estimating the within-Individual Effects of Higher Education on Political Values’. Electoral Studies 77.
• Stubager, Rune (2008), 'Education effects on authoritarian-libertarian values: A question of socialisation', British Journal of Sociology 59 (2): 327-350.

Social Attitudes

“Social attitudes” refers to the relatively stable and learned predispositions or evaluations that individuals hold toward various aspects of the social world, including people, groups, institutions, beliefs, and behaviors. These attitudes are influenced by a combination of cognitive, emotional, and experiential factors, and they shape individuals' perceptions, reactions, and interactions within society. Social attitudes can encompass a wide range of issues, such as political ideologies, religious beliefs, cultural preferences, gender roles, racial attitudes, and more

• 1. The Nature of Social Attitudes
• 2. Types of Social Values:
• 3. The Dynamics of Value Change:
• 4. Modernization and Globalization:
• 5. Technological Transformations:
• 6. Social Movements and Attitude Shifts:
• 7. Economic Factors and Value Change:
• 8. Political Context and Value Change: