Researchers say findings point to the need to recruit beyond universities when doing cross-cultural investigations 

TORONTO, March. 26, 2026 – A new study in Nature Communications finds that world-wide, people with higher levels of education are more culturally similar to those in Canada, the U.S. U.K. and other Anglo, industrialized countries and countries in Western Europe.

Lead author and 91��ɫ Faculty of Health Assistant Professor says the study shows that solely recruiting from university students and educated people when doing cross-cultural comparisons will not fully capture the cultural variability we see in the world.

“Education doesn’t just teach skills or facts, to a certain extent it also shapes how people think about the world, so the findings make sense,” says White, in the Department of Psychology. “While Western countries continue to be over-represented in research in general, our study suggests that even where participants are recruited from non-Western countries, cultural bias may continue to persist.”

Analyzing data from nearly 270,000 people across 95 countries captured in the World Values Survey, the study shows that higher education is strongly associated with cultural values typical of so-called “WEIRD” societies (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic). For example, Russians with lower education levels were very culturally distant from American values, but Russians with a university degree were much more culturally similar to the U.S.

Contrary to modernization theories, when analyzing income and social status, the researchers did not find the same association.

White paired up with London School of Economics and New 91��ɫ Professor Michael Muthukrishna for the study. They found that in 70 per cent of the countries they looked at, highly-educated people were significantly closer to the United States than people with low education in those countries. However, the researchers say the pattern reflects a broader alignment with Western cultural norms, including individualism and an emphasis on personal freedom, analytical thinking, lower conformity to social norms, and a greater generalized trust, not just American values specifically.

Muthukrishna explained, “Schooling is one of the most powerful systems of cultural transmission ever invented. Education doesn’t just change what you know, but how you think and what you value. What our results reveal is that school systems around the world still carry the fingerprints of their Western origins. That means if you’re a researcher recruiting university students in Nairobi or São Paulo and comparing them to university students in New 91��ɫ, Toronto or London, you may be dramatically underestimating how different those cultures actually are.”

White emphasizes that the findings in no way suggest that highly-educated people in non-Western countries are culturally the same as those in the West.

“We're not saying that being highly educated makes everyone the same, there's still a lot of diversity within highly educated groups around the world. It's just that the diversity has shifted in the direction of being more Western,” says White, who recently also published a paper with a University of California researcher looking at . “We are saying that you do need to look at education, in addition to things like nationality, ethnicity and religion, when considering why someone thinks the way they do.”

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91��ɫ is a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change, and prepare our students for meaningful life and career paths. 91��ɫ's Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. 91��ɫ’s campus in Costa Rica offers students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future.

Media Contact: Emina Gamulin, 91��ɫ Media Relations, 437-217-6362, egamulin@yorku.ca

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New research finds American Christians more likely to take ‘morally neutral’ risks when thinking about higher power

Thursday Dec. 14, 2023, Toronto – Does thinking about faith make religious people more likely to take leaps? A new study lead by 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Health says yes, finding that participants were more likely to take risks when thinking about God as a benevolent protector.  

“While the theoretical link between a belief in God and risk taking has been around for a while, the methods previous studies employed to test this weren’t the strongest, based on current best practices,” says lead author , an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology. “Our carefully designed study confirmed that those who believe God will protect them from negative consequences will feel more confident in pursuing potentially dangerous or uncertain activities because of a perceived safety net.”

The study, – published Monday in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, and written by White and collaborators from The University of British Columbia, Chloe Dean and Kristin Laurin – looked specifically at Christian Americans, who are known to believe in a God who protects them from harm. White also focused specifically on what she refers to as “morally neutral” risks.

“We know from previous research that religious people might be less inclined to take risks that have immoral connotations, such as drug use, and we also know that people might feel more encouraged by God to take on risks that are morally positive, like helping a person in need,” White explains. 

Instead, the researchers focused on scenarios involving recreational risks like mountain climbing, and social and career-based risks, like moving to a new place to pursue a new job opportunity, finding a reliable link.

White says the findings don’t tell us whether religious people are more likely to pursue risks than non-religious ones, but they may point to a sense of safety a belief in God provides.

“These results support the argument that as Christians go through their daily life, these beliefs about God can be used to make them feel better if they choose to pursue a risk. It does make sense that this relationship between beliefs about God and risky behaviour is part of a broader set of religious beliefs that help people cope with uncertainty and fear and stressors in daily life and help them see their lives in a more positive way and therefore, make them more likely to pursue opportunities that they might otherwise avoid.”

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