Social Axioms in Greece after Seven Years of Economic Crisis

The present study focuses on the findings of an emic quantitative research project on social axioms in Greece. The universal five social axiom dimensions have been confirmed by previous cultural studies in Greece while a sixth culture specific factor emerged reflecting stereotypic beliefs about justice, success and the “just world” belief and stressing competition in human relations (Gari, Panagiotopoulou, & Mylonas, 2009). The following research project adopting the cultural specific approach towards social axioms in Greece using an emic questionnaire built on prior qualitative research project in Greece verified the universal religiosity and social cynicism factors and the sixth aforementioned emic factor of competition/social responsibility . The reward for application axioms were intertwined with social axioms of social awareness and fate control with social axioms of social helplessness. Social support completed the six factors solution as presented in the IACCP congress in Reims. The same questionnaire was administered four years later with a sample of 982 adults from all over Greece, aged from 20 to 85 having both genders equally represented. The findings of a confirmatory factor analysis will be presented and will be discussed as compared to the findings of the first wave of the research project in order to see whether the recent emphasis on the social dimensions of Greeks’ thinking about life emerged during the ongoing economic crisis in Greece is still here.