Clustering of 316 European Regions on Measures of Values

Abstract

The use of nations as units of analysis in cross-cultural studies is a controversial approach as nations may not be culturally homogeneous. However, a recent study by Minkov and Hofstede found that African, Asian, Latin American, and Anglo in-country regions tended to form homogeneous and distinct national clusters on World Values Survey (WVS) items. We extend this research to European regions, as well as randomly formed nationally homogeneous groups of European respondents, using value measures from the 2010 European Social Survey (ESS). We find that the regions of most European countries, as well as the randomly formed groups, tend to group into national clusters. We also find that large samples of randomly chosen individuals from diverse nations cannot be sorted into nations. Our findings have theoretical implications for the conceptualization of culture as something shared at the group level rather than the individual.