This book offers a geo-climatic explanation for the historical emergence of Western democratic institutions and emancipatory values. It identifies the Cool Water Condition—a combination of cool seasons, steady rainfall, and coastal proximity—as the ecological foundation for decentralized resource management. These conditions fostered traditions of self-governance across social groups, enabling bottom-up resistance to centralized authority and the formation of contractual state institutions. The authors argue that while rooted in specific environmental settings, the dynamics underpinning this development have broader global relevance today. The book is published by Springer and is available in open access.

Join us on May 29 for a WVS webinar co-organized with ISA RC20 Comparative Sociology on Globalization, populism, and climate skepticism: untangling varieties and pathways. Drawing on cross-national survey data, the talk will unpack how different forms of populist attitudes shape public responses to climate change and environmental policy.

Join us on May 26 for the next webinar, where Liwei Jiang (NVIDIA) explores whether language models can reason about individual human values and preferences, and what this means for pluralistic AI alignment. The session will present a new benchmark for evaluating how AI systems navigate disagreements, moral diversity, and personalized value judgments across users.

WVS webinar on May 18 where Karin Bage (Karolinska Institutet, Sweden) explores how reproductive agency relates to life satisfaction, health, and happiness, with important gendered implications across sub-Saharan Africa.

WVS webinar on April 15 with Ioannis Petrakis (Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University) discussing how subjective well-being reduces ideological radicalization. This study shows that higher life satisfaction can act as a psychological buffer against extremist attitudes. Drawing on World Values Survey data, it highlights the role of social cohesion and economic security in strengthening democratic resilience.

WVS webinar discussing with Patricia Justino (UNU-Wider, Finland) the global erosion of interpersonal and institutional trust, its impact on social cohesion and governance, and the challenges of rebuilding effective social contracts in uncertain times. Professor Patricia Justino is a development economist who works at the interface between Development Economics and Political Science. She is a leading expert on political violence and development, and the co-founder and co-director of the Households in Conflict Network. She is currently Deputy Director at UNU-WIDER and Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in Brighton, UK (on leave).

In 2022, the World Values Survey Association introduced the Ronald F. Inglehart Honorary Lecture to commemorate the memory and scientific legacy of the Founder of the World Values Survey, Professor Ronald F. Inglehart. The 2025 lecture will be delivered by Dr. Elizabeth J. Zechmeister, who will speak on “Preserving Public Commitment to Democracy.” Her lecture will explore whether public allegiance to democratic institutions and processes is more easily undermined than restored. In the first part of the talk, Dr. Zechmeister will show how universal human norms around reciprocity can fuel democratic decline through tit-for-tat political behavior. She will then consider whether these same tendencies can be harnessed to rebuild political trust and encourage compromise. Drawing on survey and experimental data from a diverse set of countries, she will offer new insights into both the challenges and opportunities for reinforcing public commitment to democracy. The lecture will take place on Tuesday, December 16, 2025, at 15:00 UTC and will be conducted over Zoom. Attendance is free of charge. A video will be available after the event.

Join us for the WVS webinar on July 15, where WVSA Vice-President Prof. Dr. Christian Welzel of Leuphana University Lüneburg will discuss the resilience of autocratic regimes in the face of modernization. Drawing on data from a multilevel moderation study, the presentation examines how authoritarian systems attempt to block the psychological effects of development, yet ultimately fail to suppress the rise of emancipatory values. These findings offer new insights into the internal contradictions of modernizing autocracies and their growing vulnerability over time.

Join us for the WVS webinar on June 27, where our guest speaker, Amy Adamczyk from John Jay College of Criminal Justice and The Graduate Center, City University of New York, explores global public opinion on abortion. The analysis across 88 countries shows that national context—particularly religious importance, economic development, and gender inequality—plays a key role in shaping abortion attitudes beyond individual-level factors. The presentation highlights how support for abortion varies globally, with notable trends such as declining justification in China despite growing tolerance for other moral issues. These findings offer insights into how public opinion on abortion is shaped by broader cultural and political forces across societies.

The WVSA is delighted to present this year’s Ronald F. Inglehart Honorary Lecture award to Robert Mattes, Professor of Government and Public Policy at the University of Strathclyde, UK. A leading expert on democratic attitudes, Robert Mattes spoke on “Anti-Democratic Parties and Popular Support for Democracy.” The lecture examined how such parties shape citizens’ views on democratic governance.