Voting is considered one of the top most criteria to decide if a person is a good member in a society, states a new study by PEW Research Centre. The survey held in 19 advanced economises found that a median of 91 per cent said that voting was important, and 73 per cent felt it very important.
Older people are found to believe more in voting, COVID-19 vaccine and follow domestic and international news.
CLIMATE AND VACCINATION
However, the Pew Research Centre says that voting is just not the criteria. They also said that people valued steps to improve the environment and promote public health. Many also believed making choices to reduce global climate change and getting a coronavirus vaccine was important.
In many nations, those on the left are also more likely than those on the right to place value on participating in demonstrations. In the U.S., 66 per cent of self-identified liberals believe making choices to reduce the effects of climate change is very important for being a good member of society, compared with just 19% of conservatives.
In nearly all countries, women are more likely than men to consider making choices to reduce the effects of climate change very important for being a good member of society. For example, 71% of Swedish women hold this view, compared with 49% of Swedish men.
CURRENT AFFAIRS AND PART OF SOCIETY
Apart from these, the survey also found that knowledge of current affairs also determine if a person is good. A responsible citizen needs to be informed about current affairs. Medians of more than eight-in-ten say it is important to follow current events in other countries and keep up with politics in their own country (however, fewer than half think it’s very important to follow international and domestic news), the researchers said.
The researchers also said that a good member should be willing to take to the streets when significant issues are at stake. They found that a median of 57 per cent say it is important to join demonstrations about issues you think are important. It said that only 22 per cent consider protesting very important, and Spain is the only country surveyed where more than half (54 per cent) express this view.
RELIGIOUS SERVICES
The PEW Centre says that a median of just 41 per cent say it is important, and only 16 per cent consider it very important. There are, however, notable cross-national differences on this question. While only single digits say attending religious services is very important in Australia (7%), Sweden (6%) and Japan (4%), a majority of Malaysians (55%) express this view, as do nearly three-in ten Singaporeans (29%) and a quarter of Israelis. In the United States, 22% believe attending religious services is very important to being a good member of society.
Malaysia is the only nation in which a majority of respondents who say it is necessary to be believe in God to be moral also say attending religious services is very important.
