Cultural values and the consumption of alcohol

What is it about?

Politicians and business leaders like to talk about values, and, indeed values are important. Studies have shown that they are related to many important aspects of our lives. People’s values predict, among other things, pro-environmental behaviour, prejudice and well-being. Some researchers have also studied cultural values. Cultural values can be measured by averaging the responses to a value survey from many people living in one country. They express what is considered good and important in a society. Countries where people tend to value autonomy and harmony the most tend to drink more alcohol, our latest study shows. And countries where people are more likely to value hierarchy, security and obedience, tend to drink less alcohol.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

Alcohol consumption can have devastating consequences for individuals and society. For example, in 2012 alcohol consumption was estimated to have caused 3.3m deaths globally, a figure that corresponds to 5.9% of all deaths that year. It is strongly associated with hypertension, cirrhosis of the liver and chronic pancreatitis. Drinking alcohol also has an economic cost of around one per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in developed countries, so our findings have important implications for how international agencies, such as the World Health Organisation (WHO), tackle problems associated with alcohol consumption.