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Question: In general, would you say that people should obey the law without exception, or are there exceptional occasions on which people should follow their consciences even if it means breaking the law?
Choices: "Obey the law without exception" "Follow conscience on occasions"
Data: % of "Follow conscience on occasions"
Period:
Area:
23 countries/ areas
Highlight:
1 France84.8%
2 Canada74.9%
3 Germany72.0%
4 Norway68.1%
5 Australia67.6%
6 Japan 67.2%
7 New Zealand66.8%
7 Switzerland66.8%
9 Italy64.9%
10 Cyprus63.9%
11 United States61.5%
12 Russian Federation60.7%
13 Ireland60.2%
14 Latvia58.7%
14 Slovenia58.7%
16 Uruguay57.3%
17 Czech Republic51.0%
18 Hungary50.0%
19 Philippines47.8%
20 Bulgaria39.7%
21 Israel36.5%
21 Poland36.5%
23 Spain35.8%

Note
Can't choose/ No answer are excluded. Germany: unweighted sum of West and East Germany. Israel: unweighted sum of Jews and Arabs. United Kingdom: excluding Northern Ireland.

No data for 215 countries.

Source
ISSP 1996

Correlations with major national performance indices
Life satisfaction (10 steps)
No. of data23
Regression equation
Y = 0.993652 X +5.965
Correlation coefficient (r)0.263
Coefficient of determination (R2)0.069

GDP per capita (current US$)
No. of data23
Regression equation
Y = 91151.234044 X -10592.251
Correlation coefficient (r)0.409
Coefficient of determination (R2)0.167

Life expectancy at birth - Both sexes (years)
No. of data23
Regression equation
Y = 15.634268 X +69.866
Correlation coefficient (r)0.417
Coefficient of determination (R2)0.174

Fertility rate, total (births per woman)
No. of data23
Regression equation
Y = -0.876617 X +2.166
Correlation coefficient (r)-0.268
Coefficient of determination (R2)0.072

Suicide, age-standardized (per 100 000 population)
No. of data23
Regression equation
Y = 8.720335 X +5.015
Correlation coefficient (r)0.239
Coefficient of determination (R2)0.057