WVS Webinar on May 27: Measuring National Parochialism and Explaining Its Individual Variations Using Survey Data
Welcome to the World Values Survey Association's webinar series. In these monthly sessions, we invite scholars from various disciplines who utilize WVS survey data, either alone or in combination with other datasets, to share their latest findings and insights. The webinars will explore a wide range of topics measured through the time-series WVS surveys, covering analysis of both substantive issues and methodological perspectives. Learn more about the forthcoming webinars here.
In this webinar, our guest speaker, Junji Kageyama from Meikai University, Japan, will explore national parochialism by introducing a survey-based measurement approach using data from the World Values Survey and European Values Survey, allowing for broader cross-country analysis with rich demographic and socioeconomic insights. The study validates this new measure by confirming its alignment with experimental findings and identifying key demographic and political correlates, such as sex, education, political ideology, native status, age, and economic security, showing that individuals in socially insecure positions tend to be more parochial. Additionally, the research uncovers that the COVID-19 pandemic heightened national parochialism, highlighting both the potential and limitations of policy interventions aimed at mitigating its effects.
The webinar will take place on Tuesday, May 27, 2025, at 09:00 UTC.
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National parochialism has attracted academic attention as its negative consequences have become increasingly apparent in the globalizing world. To empirically approach this issue, previous studies measured national parochialism employing experimental methods. The present study introduces a new approach using self-reported survey data. The advantages of using self-reported survey data lie in the access to a greater number of observations in a wider variety of countries with rich socioeconomic and demographic background information. Specifically, we use questions asking the respondents about the closeness to one’s country and the closeness to the world in the World Values Survey and European Values Survey and define their difference as national parochialism. Using this measure, we assess its validity and investigate the sources of the individual variations. Our main results and contributions are as follows. First, our measure of national parochialism is compatible with the ones in experimental studies. Second, we confirm the findings in the previous studies that national parochialism correlates with sex, educational level, and political ideology, with some cross-country variations. Third, we add new findings to the literature that national parochialism correlates with native status, age, marital status, income class, employment status, as well as both mother’s and father’s native statuses and educational levels, with the tendency that people in the socially insecure position are more parochial. We also uncover that the COVID-19 pandemic raised the level of national parochialism. These results point to both the scope and limitation of policy intervention for managing parochialism at the population level. Read the full paper here.
Junji Kageyama is a Professor of Economics at Meikai University, specializing in economic theory, population economics, the biological basis of preferences, and happiness studies. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Osaka University and has conducted research at institutions such as the University of California, Berkeley, and the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research. His work explores the intersection of economics, demography, and behavioral studies, with a focus on topics such as national parochialism, fertility trends, life satisfaction, and economic decision-making. Professor Kageyama has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals, contributing to discussions on happiness, demographic transitions, and trust in institutions. His recent research examines the role of personality in political trust, cultural and economic influences on well-being, and how demographic changes shape economic behavior. He is an active member of various academic associations, including the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, the Population Association of Japan, and the Japanese Economic Association.
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