# Cultures as networks of cultural traits: A unifying framework for measuring culture and cultural distances

**Authors:** Luca De Benedictis, Roberto Rondinelli, Veronica Vinciotti  
**arXiv:** [2007.02359](https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.02359)  
**Date:** 2020-07-05  
**Summary page:** https://www.summarizepaper.com/en/arxiv-id/2007.02359v5/

## Key points

- The paper proposes a new methodology to reveal the latent structure of national cultures and measure cultural distance between countries.
- The authors utilize data from the World Value Survey (WVS) and operationalize a definition of national culture that considers both the relevance of specific cultural traits and their interdependence.
- Copula graphical models for discrete data are employed to infer the cultural networks of all countries included in WVS Wave 6.
- The proposed framework measures national culture and international cultural distances by taking into account both the difference in cultural traits and the difference in network structure among them.
- The Jeffreys' divergence between copula graphical models is used as a measure of cultural distance between countries, capturing the orthogonality of two components of cultural distance: one based on cultural traits and another based on network structure.
- This approach provides a more comprehensive understanding of national cultures than previous methods that only consider individual traits or aggregate scores.
- The paper has implications for cross-cultural research, international business, diplomacy, and other fields where understanding differences in national cultures is crucial.

## Summary

The paper titled "Cultures as networks of cultural traits: A unifying framework for measuring culture and cultural distances" proposes a novel methodology to reveal the latent structure of national cultures and measure cultural distance between countries. The authors utilize data from the World Value Survey (WVS) and operationalize a definition of national culture that considers both the relevance of specific cultural traits and their interdependence. They employ copula graphical models for discrete data to infer the cultural networks of all countries included in WVS Wave 6. The proposed framework measures national culture and international cultural distances by taking into account both the difference in cultural traits and the difference in network structure among them. The Jeffreys' divergence between copula graphical models is used as a measure of cultural distance between countries, capturing the orthogonality of two components of cultural distance: one based on cultural traits and another based on network structure. The authors demonstrate that these two components correlate with different national and structural characteristics of cultural networks, encompassing different informational sets related to national cultures. This approach provides a more comprehensive understanding of national cultures than previous methods that only consider individual traits or aggregate scores. Overall, this paper offers a new perspective on measuring culture and provides insights into how different aspects of national cultures are interconnected. It has implications for cross-cultural research, international business, diplomacy, and other fields where understanding differences in national cultures is crucial.