How Do “Asian Values” Shape Political Participation?
Using data from the Asian Barometer Survey (ABS), Song and colleagues pointed out in an English-language publication that “Asian values” influence the political participation of people in Taiwan. Their results show that people who are “less Asian” are more likely to engage in actual political actions after discussing politics with people around them. Moreover, the more similar the values within this group, the more likely this participation becomes.
So, are these “Asian values” the same ones Asian parents always talk about? Here’s how the authors explain it:
The study measures “Asian values” using ABS items such as “obeying parents’ unreasonable demands,” “avoiding public conflict,” and “sacrificing personal interests for the group.”
They then match respondents’ frequency of consuming political news, discussing politics with family and friends, and participating in online petitions or offline demonstrations to three concepts: political news consumption, political discussion, and political participation.
“Network homogeneity” is measured by asking respondents to evaluate whether their own values are similar to those of the people they regularly interact with.
📊 According to the model in Figure 1, the research suggests that the more political news Taiwanese people consume, the more politically active they should be. However, in reality, those who frequently watch political news first engage in more political discussions with family and friends. It is these discussions that then lead to higher levels of political participation.
But if some of them hold more “Asian” values, that frequency of participation decreases; meanwhile, the similarity of values among them has no effect.
🔎 However, when considering the interaction between “Asian values” and “network homogeneity,” as shown in Figure 2, those who are “less Asian” become more likely to increase their actual participation after discussions, provided their views are similar to one another. Conversely, if their perspectives diverge, this effect weakens.
It seems to suggest that among politically active Taiwanese, those who participate the most are—according to the meaning of “Asian values”—more likely to be people who challenge authority, don’t prioritize harmony in conflicts, and value their own interests more. Maybe that’s a bit exaggerated, but compared to others, they are certainly people who speak up more, fear conflict less, and are more willing to be themselves. And as long as they reach consensus among themselves, they become even more likely to take action.
Original links：How Citizen Communication Mediation Model Works in Taiwan: The Moderating Roles of Asian Values and Network Homogeneity
