Charting the Shifting Soul of Nations: UP Physicists Decode Four Decades of Global Cultural Evolution

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In an ambitious fusion of hard science and the human spirit, physicists from the University of the Philippines – Diliman have visualized the subtle yet sweeping shifts in global values over the past four decades. Their groundbreaking research offers a rare, data-driven glimpse into the evolving cultural DNA of over 120 nations, revealing how societies adapt, diverge, and redefine themselves across generations.

At the heart of the study is a team of applied physicists from the UP College of Science’s National Institute of Physics (UPD-CS NIP): John Lawrence Euste, Hannah Christina Arjonillo, and Dr. Caesar Saloma. Armed with the vast Integrated Values Survey (IVS)—a global dataset encompassing more than 300,000 respondents from 1981 to 2022—the trio set out to map the intangible: cultural change.

Using principal component analysis (PCA)—a statistical technique commonly used in the physical sciences—the researchers generated two kinds of cultural “maps.” The first reveals value differences between countries; the second illustrates cultural diversity within nations, capturing a complex, living landscape of individual values often lost in country-level generalizations.

“From our perspective as applied physicists, we wanted to detect and measure how culture has evolved—something usually described only anecdotally,” said Dr. Saloma, a pioneer in sociophysics, the science of applying physics-based models to understand societal dynamics.

How Values Shift Across Borders and Time

The study’s global map treats countries as points in a vast cultural constellation. Tracking these points over time, the team discovered a pronounced global shift: nations are steadily gravitating toward self-expression values—placing greater importance on environmental consciousness, gender equality, civic engagement, and personal freedom.

On the second map, which charts individual respondents within a country, a deeper story unfolds. Here, the researchers used standard deviational ellipse (SDE) analysis to measure a country's cultural diversity. Nations with compact ellipses tend to be more culturally homogenous and traditional. Those with broader ellipses reveal richer internal diversity and a stronger embrace of progressive values.

“The PCA helped us reduce the complexity of thousands of survey responses into meaningful patterns. But we wanted more than country averages—we wanted to reflect real individual differences,” explained Euste.

To bridge both maps, the team used a transformation matrix that projected individual survey responses into the same coordinate space as the country-level analysis. This ensured a consistent, dynamic comparison of macro and micro cultural shifts.

“It doesn’t make sense to represent an entire country like the Philippines with a single dot,” added Arjonillo. “So we designed a method to reflect both the collective and the individual perspectives—two levels of the cultural lens.”

A Portrait of the Philippines in Cultural Transition

The Philippines, the data shows, remains a traditionally anchored society—strong in religious values, familial loyalty, and respect for authority. But it also displays increasing openness to self-expression, particularly in its support for gender equality, environmental protection, and participatory governance.

From 1996 to 2019, Filipino cultural values have shown a gradual but measurable shift: traditionalism is ebbing while self-expression is on the rise. Surprisingly, the countries culturally closest to the Philippines are not its ASEAN neighbors, but Latin American nations like Bolivia, Guatemala, Mexico, and Nicaragua—likely reflecting shared colonial histories under Spain more than geographic proximity.

From Charts to Change: Policy Potential

Beyond mapping values, the physicists see real-world applications for their research—especially in policymaking, governance, and cultural education.

“This kind of data can guide decision-makers to create policies that actually reflect where people are and where they’re heading,” Euste emphasized. “If you understand the trajectory of cultural values, you can plan for the future more effectively.”

Dr. Saloma underscored the need for evidence-based policy grounded in science: “Legislation is more impactful when backed by data. Culture may seem intangible, but with the right tools, we can measure and understand it—and use that knowledge for better governance.”

Culture in Motion, Science in Progress

For Arjonillo, the mission is far from over. “This is still a work in progress,” she noted. “Our main goal is to build tools for measurement. That’s what instrumentation is about—making the invisible visible.”

What began as a physicist’s question—Can you measure culture?—has evolved into a visual atlas of humanity’s shifting identity. The UPD physicists have not only created a new way of seeing cultural change; they’ve opened the door for science to understand the soul of societies.

And in doing so, they’ve proven that physics can do more than chart the cosmos—it can also help us navigate the universe within.

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