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Education has been shown to alter values and attitudes in Western European and American countries. In tendency, the higher the level of education of respondents is, the more liberal are their values concerning civil rights, civil liberties, moral issues and political liberties. Vice versa, the lower the level of education of respondents is the more authoritarian their values are. Concerning Asian Confucian countries, however, the influence of education on values has only partly been investigated in, i.e. with an emphasis on values concerning political liberties. This paper focuses instead on values concerning questions of civil rights, civil liberties and moral issues. The leading question is, if education matters also in East Asian, Confucian contexts, such as Vietnam, China, Taiwan and Japan. It is not prima facie obvious, that education matters also in a non-Western cultural context. Western social theories, e.g. modernization theories, have not always worked in the same way in other cultural contexts, but were changed within specific cultural contexts. In addition, Asian Confucian countries are often reported to be “exceptional" and to differ from Western countries, e.g. concerning social networks, family patterns, and gender issues. However, there are also reasons to expect that education matters in the same way in Asian Confucian countries. For example, the thesis of Asian Confucian exceptionalism is questioned: political values are not always reported to be more authoritarian in Asian Confucian countries than in Western countries. In addition, Asian Confucian countries are reported to change values and life patterns, making them more similar to Western countries. Thus, it remains an open question, if and how education matters in an Asian Confucian context. This paper investigates into the question with data from the World Values Surveys. Results show that higher educated tend to be more liberal than less educated in Asian countries like in Western countries. Broadly speaking, the idea that education matters seems to be applicable also in Asian Confucian social contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding cross-cultural differences in attitudes to animal welfare issues is important in maintaining good international relations, including economic and trade relations. This study aimed to investigate the attitudes of stakeholders towards improving the welfare of animals during slaughter and transport in four key SE and E Asian countries: China, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia. Logistic regression analysis of the associations between demographic factors and attitudes identifed nationality as the most significant factor influencing attitude. Motivating factors for improving welfare were ranked according to their importance: religion, knowledge levels, monetary gain, availability of tools and resources, community issues, approval of supervisor and peers. Strong beliefs in the influence of animal welfare laws, the power of the workplace and the importance of personal knowledge were shared by all countries. In addition, religion and peer consideration were significantly associated with attitudes in Malaysia and Thailand, respectively. The findings of this research will assist in the development of international animal welfare initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]