This year marks the first time that Greece participated in the World Values Survey (WVS), an international survey into human beliefs, values and motivations of people.
Since 1981, the WVS is conducted in almost 100 countries which contain almost 90 percent of the world’s population using the most rigorous, high-quality research designs in each country, using a common questionnaire. The committee consists of a global network of social scientists studying changing values and their impact on social and political life, led by an international team of scholars, with the WVS Association and WVSA Secretariat based in Vienna, Austria.
The survey is currently the largest non-commercial, cross-national, time series investigation of human beliefs and values ever executed, currently including interviews with almost 400,000 respondents and the only academic study covering the full range of global variations, from very poor to very rich countries, in all of the world’s major cultural zones. Data collected and analysed by the WVS are a point of reference for government officials, journalists and students, and groups at the World Bank examining the linkages between cultural factors and economic development.
In Greece’s case, the survey was organised by Dianeosis, a not-for-profit think-tank, in cooperation with the National Center for Social Research (EKKE) and the poll was conducted by Metron Analysis on a sample of 1,200 people.
The sample was interviewed between September and October 2017 – before Greece exited the memorandum – in an attempt to access data that can help scientists and policy makers understand changes in the beliefs, values and motivations of the people.
The answers have been processed and assessed by a team of political scientists, sociologists, social psychologists, anthropologists and economists providing valuable insight into Greece’s economic development, democratisation, views on religion, gender equality, social capital, and subjective well-being.
THE RESULTS
According to the survey, which has gone viral on social media, Greeks are extremely suspicious and resistant to diversity, while they also feel very insecure about the future.
Not surprisingly, the level of social trust in institutions such as the Parliament, political parties and news media outlets in general is extremely low; no more than 15 per cent of Greeks say that they have trust in them.
The polled sample revealed that over 50 per cent of Greeks value five institutions: universities, the armed forces, the police, the church and the judicial system.
Greece’s trust towards institutions is not as low as the population’s trust in other people though, with more than nine out of 10 respondents saying that they disagree with the statement “most people can be trusted”, and only a tiny 8.4 per cent believes that “every human being is trustworthy”.
Even though 61 per cent of the participants said they trust their neighbours, one in three respondents declared they would not want a homosexual as a neighbour; one in four doesn’t want migrants as neighbours; and one in five doesn’t want a neighbour who follows another religion.
These findings of the survey reveal the low levels of tolerance in Greek society towards diversity. Some more ‘not preferred’ neighbour types for the majority of the Greeks include people addicted to substances, people who drink alcohol, HIV patients as well as unmarried couples living together.
The vast majority -a total of 99.5 percent- said that they trust a member of their family to the point their ultimate goal in life is to make their parents proud; 81.4 of those said they were quite religious with a hard core 21 per cent agreeing with the statement “when science and religion clash, the latter is always right”.
On that respect, the survey concluded that more than half of Greeks believe that immigration – especially from third world or war torn countries – threatens Greece’s security and has a negative impact on growth.
With mistrust towards other cultures and religions gripping Greeks, the society in its whole has become more introverted and citizens of the same country, even the same neighbourhood are becoming alienated.
About 64 per cent of the participants in Greece believe that immigration increases the risk of terrorism, and 63.5 per cent consider that immigration increases unemployment.
Meanwhile, 29 per cent of Greek citizens are concerned over whether they will be able to provide their children with a good education; with one in six respondents between the ages of 30 and 49 being worried that they will either lose their job, or that they will not be able to find work.
Greek people’s concerns do not end with employment worries, as one in five respondents said they worry over the possibility of a civil war and one in three of the prospect of a military conflict with a neighbouring country.
More people, however, worry about a terrorist attack, something four out of ten find extremely possible.
On a more personal note, one in 10 respondents claim to have fallen victim to a crime over the past year and one in three said their neighbourhood has witnessed many thefts.
On the positive side, almost seven out of 10 respondents claimed they are very or sufficiently happy while a whopping 83 per cent for young adults said they enjoy good or very good health.
Sixty-three percent of respondents consider that society must improve gradually with reforms, while the remaining one-third consider that voters are essentially “bribed”.
When asked what their prevalent emotions are regarding Greece’s predicament and what the country had to go through during the financial crisis a 18.8 per cent responded it is anger; 12.1 feels sorrow; 1.9 per cent is hopeful; 10.7 lives in agony, 8.1 feels fear and 6.4 per cent is ashamed.
To find out more about WVS, visit worldvaluessurvey.org/wvs.jsp
For more information and to download the results of the Greek survey go to dianeosis.org/2018/09/oi-aksies-twn-ellinwn