War and Angst

European views on morality

The French are the most adulterous. The Danes, the most tolerant. The Italians--what other nation produces as many sobbing tenors?--are the most melancholy. And the British, perhaps because their green and pleasant land has not been the battlefield the Continent has been in living memory, are the most willing to go to war for Queen and country.

Suppositions from abroad, perhaps? Stereotypes laid on the French, Danes, Italians and British by their neighbors? Not at all. These turn out to be national self-appraisals in a sweeping poll taken last spring in ten countries by a multinational group of social scientists banded together in Amsterdam as the European Value Systems Study Group.

Frequent surveys in the past have measured material gains and quality of life; only two weeks ago, in fact, the latest such British study indicated that fully 96% of Britons can now scrub in either a bathtub or a shower, and 55% have central heating (that supposed bane of British life). But never before have the abstract social and moral values of Europeans been measured as they were by the E.V.S.S.G.

Complete results of the survey, in which as many as 1,200 people in each country sat for an identical 150-question interview, will not be released until next year. But among preliminary findings recently leaked in London are some of these national traits:

THE BRITISH: In addition to being patriotic, Britons also appear to be truly a happy breed. Of those surveyed, 95% insist that they are "quite happy" or "very happy." But there also seem to be contradictions in the way the British see themselves. They take more pride in their work (79%) than do those of the other countries, which seems strange in a nation renowned for bellicose trade unions, work stoppages, strikes and generally poor industrial relations. The British watch more television (20 hours a week) than anyone else (the Danes and Dutch read more newspapers). But they also prove to be the most concerned about good sexual relations in marriage, an ideal not always easy to achieve with the telly blaring.

THE FRENCH: Call it Gallic cynicism, perhaps, but the French, in addition to being most adulterous, insist that they are also the most dissatisfied and the least proud of their work. They are the least Godfearing, except for the Danes. Along with the Germans, they take the greatest interest in politics. And while far less eager than the British to march off to war, they are far more apt to march off to strikes, demonstrations and even revolutions.

THE GERMANS: Teutonic angst, presumably, makes the Germans the gloomiest about their health. They worry about job security and promotion and are least proud of their nationality. Additionally, West Germans indicate that they are the most intolerant toward extremists on the right and left, foreign workers, cult religions and even heavy drinkers.

THE SPANISH: Possibly because they spent so much time on the right under Francisco Franco, Spaniards now position themselves on the political left. More than other Europeans, they consider wages the most important aspect of working. And more than the others, too, they believe in God, hell and the devil.

The Spaniards, along with the French, Italians and Germans, put the church at the head of the list when asked to indicate degrees of confidence in ten institutions, including parliaments, civil service, trade unions and the press. The British, however, put most confidence in the police, with the church a distant fourth. When respondents were asked to weigh their concern about the Ten Commandments, the Italians considered themselves most respectful toward seven of the ten. But it is the British who show the most concern about the remaining three: adultery, coveting one's neighbor's wife and coveting his goods.

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