Nations have been questioned as meaningful units for analyzing culture due to their allegedly limited variance-capturing power and large internal heterogeneity. Against this skepticism, we argue that culture is by definition a collective phenomenon and focusing on individual differences contradicts the very concept of culture. Through the “miracle of aggregation,” we can eliminate random noise and arbitrary variation at the individual level in order to distill the central cultural tendencies of nations. Accordingly, we depict national culture as a gravitational field that socializes individuals into the orbit of a nation’s central cultural tendency. Even though individuals are also exposed to other gravitational forces, subcultures in turn gravitate within the limited orbit of their national culture. Using data from the World Values Survey, we show that individual values cluster in concentric circles around their nation’s cultural gravity center. We reveal the miracle of aggregation by demonstrating that nations capture the bulk of the variation in the individuals’ cultural values once they are aggregated into lower-level territorial units such as towns and sub-national regions. We visualize the gravitational force of national cultures by plotting various intra-national groups from five large countries that form distinct national clusters. Contrary to many scholars’ intuitions, alternative social aggregates, such as ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups, as well as diverse socio-demographic categories, add negligible explained variance to that already captured by nations.

由于据称有限的差异捕捉能力和巨大的内部异质性，国家一直被质疑作为分析文化的有意义的单位。反对这种怀疑，我们认为文化根据定义是一种集体现象，关注个体差异与文化概念相矛盾。通过“聚合的奇迹”，我们可以消除个体层面的随机噪音和任意变异，从而提炼出民族的中心文化倾向。相应地，我们将民族文化描述为一个引力场，它将个人社会化到一个民族的中心文化趋势的轨道上。即使个人也受到其他引力的影响，亚文化反过来又会被其民族文化的有限轨道所吸引。使用世界价值观调查的数据，我们展示了个人价值观围绕他们国家的文化重心聚集在同心圆中。我们通过证明一旦将个人文化价值观聚合到较低级别的领土单位（例如城镇和次国家区域）中，国家就会捕捉到个人文化价值观的大部分变化，从而揭示了聚合的奇迹。我们通过绘制形成不同民族集群的五个大国的各种民族内部群体，将民族文化的引力可视化。与许多学者的直觉相反，替代性社会群体，如种族、语言和宗教群体，以及不同的社会人口类别，为国家已经捕捉到的差异增加了可以忽略不计的解释差异。我们通过证明一旦将个人文化价值观聚合到较低级别的领土单位（例如城镇和次国家区域）中，国家就会捕捉到个人文化价值观的大部分变化，从而揭示了聚合的奇迹。我们通过绘制形成不同民族集群的五个大国的各种民族内部群体，将民族文化的引力可视化。与许多学者的直觉相反，替代性社会群体，如种族、语言和宗教群体，以及不同的社会人口类别，为国家已经捕捉到的差异增加了可以忽略不计的解释差异。我们通过证明一旦将个人文化价值观聚合到较低级别的领土单位（例如城镇和次国家区域）中，国家就会捕捉到个人文化价值观的大部分变化，从而揭示了聚合的奇迹。我们通过绘制形成不同民族集群的五个大国的各种民族内部群体，将民族文化的引力可视化。与许多学者的直觉相反，替代性社会群体，如种族、语言和宗教群体，以及不同的社会人口类别，为国家已经捕捉到的差异增加了可以忽略不计的解释差异。