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The fact that Europe and it’s colonies (with around a tenth of the worlds population) fill up half of the map hints at some Eurocentrism. Shoving all of Asia an

• 1996 6y ago
  Are you familiar with the methodology used? > The fact that Europe and it’s colonies (with around a tenth of the worlds population) fill up half of the map hints at some Eurocentrism It reads to me like "results of a 2d plot using matrix multiplication do not match my biases, it hints at some Eurocentrism" But to answe the question, No, it just means there is more variance there in whatever cultural values where measured, then analysed by PCA. I will try to give you similar counter intuitive examples. Likewise, Africa has more genetic variance than the rest of the world, even when adjusted by population. It does not mean anything, except that there are more separate groups who did not intermingle much there. If I remember correctly, Papua New Guinea has the most genetic distance to the rest of the world. It does not mean anything either, except that it's far away to the rest of the world, so had fewer contacts. > Shoving all of Asia and all of Africa into tiny equally sized corners is quite strange. No, it means that both 1st and 2nd PC had close values. Maybe if you look at the answers to the questions themselves, there would be little variance. What is interesting is that we can make cultural clusters while we wouldn't have expected any to remain after PCA. It shows geography impacts the diffusion of cultural values, which is fascinating - and more so for the exceptions, like Uruguay.