In a new review article summarizing several cross-cultural studies, an Australian scientist argues that there is a cluster of psychological traits and attitudes that can be defined as a “conservative syndrome.”
“I was not interested in this particular topic when I started the work some ten years ago,” explained Lazar Stankov of the University of Sydney and University of Southern Queensland. “My intention was to study cross-cultural differences. Much of my previous work was in the area of intelligence and I wanted to branch out into the non-cognitive field. Studying differences in personality traits, social attitudes, values, social axioms and social norms was appealing to me.”
