Groups of Individual Attitudes Towards Cultural Issues in Europe: A Unidimensional Conflict?

Abstract

According to the cleavage literature, there is a cultural conflict in Europe where libertarian-cosmopolitan positions oppose traditionalist-communitarian ones. Empirically, however, it remains unclear how individuals position themselves across issues of environmentalism, gender, sexual diversity, immigration and the European Union and how these positions are linked. This article explores what multidimensional attitudinal configurations exist in Europe, how they are rooted in social structure and linked to party identification. Using data from 21 countries in the European Values Study 2017, I first conduct latent profile analysis on individual attitudinal data, followed by regression analysis to assess the resulting profiles’ socio-structural and political underpinnings. Although ambivalent and multidimensional attitudes dominate, results show a divide of sexual diversity attitudes. The attitudinal groups are stratified along occupation, education and the political spectrum. The findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of cultural attitudes in Europe and cast doubt on the assumption of a polarized cultural conflict.