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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Can ‘Openness-to-change’ and ‘Conservation’ Values Predict the Diffusion of the Internet into European Homes?

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Abstract This study investigated whether openness-to-change values (self-direction and stimulation) and conservation values (security and tradition) could predict the diffusion of the internet into homes by 2014, at the level of 159 European regions. All four value scales were correlated with the diffusion of the internet, after controlling for regional wealth and population density. Self-direction was by far the most consistent predictor of the diffusion of internet connections; a combination of self-direction and stimulation values could predict home internet use better than other combinations of human values. A longitudinal analysis, at the level of 25 countries, investigated the possibility of reverse causation (could the internet affect human values?), between 2004 and 2014. The study found no such effects.