The Value Orientations of GenAI: A Cross-National Comparative and Alignment Study Based on the World Values Survey (WVS)

The Value Orientations of GenAI: A Cross-National Comparative and Alignment Study Based on the World Values Survey (WVS) | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article The Value Orientations of GenAI: A Cross-National Comparative and Alignment Study Based on the World Values Survey (WVS) Shujing Yu, Shibo Ma, Muyuan Niu This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9109799/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 6 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The value orientations embedded within generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) outputs are precipitating significant ethical and governance challenges. This study examines 15 mainstream GenAI models from six countries—China, US, South Korea, UK, France, Israel—employing the World Values Survey (WVS) scale to measure their value inclinations across five dimensions: politics, economy, culture, society, and ecology. Multiple rounds of testing and analysis reveal that GenAI values exhibit a stable core consensus coexisting with institution- and culture-centered divergences across nations. While universal agreement is observed on issues such as anti-authoritarianism, gender equality, and technology for the public good, significant national differences emerge in areas like trust in government, familial obligations, and perceptions of technological risk. The cultural map of AI values markedly diverges from that derived from human samples, presenting a paradox characterized by the coexistence of “high tradition” and “high expression” with synthetic and clustered features. By evaluating the alignment between GenAI and human values, the study reveals a complex pattern of transnational convergence alongside localized deviations. This reflects the tension between descriptive and normative alignment within value alignment theory, as well as the alignment dilemma from the perspective of value pluralism. We argue for reconstructing value alignment based on “humans as ends” through technical architectures accommodating diverse values, culturally representative training data, and transparent accountability mechanisms, facilitating a shift from globally uniform to culturally adaptive alignment. Such efforts would facilitate a shift in GenAI value alignment from a globally uniform model toward a culturally adaptive one. This study contributes to the global comparative research on AI values, provides empirical evidence for balancing universal ethics and regional cultures within global AI ethics governance, and offers innovative theoretical perspectives on aligning artificial intelligence with human values and goals. Biological sciences/Psychology Social science/Psychology Social science/Science technology and society Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Reviewers agreed at journal 25 Apr, 2026 Reviewers invited by journal 23 Apr, 2026 Editor invited by journal 23 Apr, 2026 Editor assigned by journal 06 Apr, 2026 Submission checks completed at journal 22 Mar, 2026 First submitted to journal 22 Mar, 2026 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9109799","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":633508409,"identity":"24984a82-1bd8-492d-8bdc-78c1bf1807e6","order_by":0,"name":"Shujing Yu","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Communication University of China","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Shujing","middleName":"","lastName":"Yu","suffix":""},{"id":633508410,"identity":"c90dddf0-bf8f-46cf-a447-f6d6c44f0ce1","order_by":1,"name":"Shibo Ma","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA1UlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACeWb2g4///rGRsz/efIA4LYbtPMkGvA1pxgxnjiUQac15BjMB3obDiQw3fAyI08HYzJDGILnjcALjDJ6PN94w2MnpNhDQws7MeOyB4Zn0PGbp3s2WcxiSjc0OELYl3SCBzbqYTebsNmkehgOJ2whpYTjMYCZxgI05sUci5xnxWiQb25wTZ0jksBGnxbCZJxkYwGnGBjzHjC3nGBDhF3n+4wcfM1TYyBmwNz+88abCTo6gFhQgwUNk1CBrIVXHKBgFo2AUjAgAAMteQSEMFsuVAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"Communication University of China","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Shibo","middleName":"","lastName":"Ma","suffix":""},{"id":633508411,"identity":"1a3a5c3b-577a-45d7-a7e6-d36bc4db170a","order_by":2,"name":"Muyuan Niu","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Communication University of China","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Muyuan","middleName":"","lastName":"Niu","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-03-13 03:38:36","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9109799/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9109799/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":108493441,"identity":"70cab7fa-d601-497e-b7f9-46cd40d4c1d5","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-05-05 10:00:23","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1261950,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"HSSCRevisedVersionTheValueOrientationsofGenAI.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9109799/v1_covered_d2b4ad85-ec7e-4a84-85a5-8c0a8b4d9385.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"The Value Orientations of GenAI: A Cross-National Comparative and Alignment Study Based on the World Values Survey (WVS)","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"humanities-and-social-sciences-communications","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"palcomms","sideBox":"Learn more about [Humanities \u0026 Social Sciences Communications](http://www.nature.com/palcomms/)","snPcode":"41599","submissionUrl":"https://submission.springernature.com/new-submission/41599/3","title":"Humanities and Social Sciences Communications","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Nature AJ","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9109799/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9109799/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"The value orientations embedded within generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) outputs are precipitating significant ethical and governance challenges. This study examines 15 mainstream GenAI models from six countries—China, US, South Korea, UK, France, Israel—employing the World Values Survey (WVS) scale to measure their value inclinations across five dimensions: politics, economy, culture, society, and ecology. Multiple rounds of testing and analysis reveal that GenAI values exhibit a stable core consensus coexisting with institution- and culture-centered divergences across nations. While universal agreement is observed on issues such as anti-authoritarianism, gender equality, and technology for the public good, significant national differences emerge in areas like trust in government, familial obligations, and perceptions of technological risk. The cultural map of AI values markedly diverges from that derived from human samples, presenting a paradox characterized by the coexistence of “high tradition” and “high expression” with synthetic and clustered features. By evaluating the alignment between GenAI and human values, the study reveals a complex pattern of transnational convergence alongside localized deviations. This reflects the tension between descriptive and normative alignment within value alignment theory, as well as the alignment dilemma from the perspective of value pluralism. We argue for reconstructing value alignment based on “humans as ends” through technical architectures accommodating diverse values, culturally representative training data, and transparent accountability mechanisms, facilitating a shift from globally uniform to culturally adaptive alignment. Such efforts would facilitate a shift in GenAI value alignment from a globally uniform model toward a culturally adaptive one. This study contributes to the global comparative research on AI values, provides empirical evidence for balancing universal ethics and regional cultures within global AI ethics governance, and offers innovative theoretical perspectives on aligning artificial intelligence with human values and goals.","manuscriptTitle":"The Value Orientations of GenAI: A Cross-National Comparative and Alignment Study Based on the World Values Survey (WVS)","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-05-04 15:50:22","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9109799/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"69810882677969567694136672810115637266","date":"2026-04-25T07:28:27+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2026-04-23T04:20:45+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvited","content":"","date":"2026-04-23T04:11:13+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2026-04-06T05:52:44+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"checksComplete","content":"","date":"2026-03-22T19:59:01+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"Humanities and Social Sciences Communications","date":"2026-03-22T13:31:21+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"humanities-and-social-sciences-communications","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"palcomms","sideBox":"Learn more about [Humanities \u0026 Social Sciences Communications](http://www.nature.com/palcomms/)","snPcode":"41599","submissionUrl":"https://submission.springernature.com/new-submission/41599/3","title":"Humanities and Social Sciences Communications","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Nature AJ","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"38ac5a3d-f441-4b31-a5b3-2976d8f4a9fc","owner":[],"postedDate":"May 4th, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"under-review","subjectAreas":[{"id":67428356,"name":"Biological sciences/Psychology"},{"id":67428357,"name":"Social science/Psychology"},{"id":67428358,"name":"Social science/Science technology and society"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-05-04T15:50:23+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-05-04 15:50:22","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-9109799","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-9109799","identity":"rs-9109799","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}