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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:
18 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 United States61.5%
11 Ireland60.2%
12 Latvia58.7%
12 Slovenia58.7%
14 Czech Republic51.0%
15 Hungary50.0%
16 Israel36.5%
16 Poland36.5%
18 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 20 countries.

Source
ISSP 1996

Correlations with major national performance indices
Life satisfaction (10 steps)
No. of data18
Regression equation
Y = 0.178251 X +6.588
Correlation coefficient (r)0.068
Coefficient of determination (R2)0.005

Life satisfaction (10 steps)
No. of data18
Regression equation
Y = 0.345118 X +6.495
Correlation coefficient (r)0.120
Coefficient of determination (R2)0.014

GDP per capita (current US$)
No. of data18
Regression equation
Y = 64774.974915 X +13986.265
Correlation coefficient (r)0.328
Coefficient of determination (R2)0.108

Life expectancy at birth - Both sexes (years)
No. of data18
Regression equation
Y = 4.519892 X +78.800
Correlation coefficient (r)0.236
Coefficient of determination (R2)0.056

Fertility rate, total (births per woman)
No. of data18
Regression equation
Y = -0.632175 X +1.857
Correlation coefficient (r)-0.228
Coefficient of determination (R2)0.052

Suicide, age-standardized (per 100 000 population)
No. of data18
Regression equation
Y = 6.441030 X +6.264
Correlation coefficient (r)0.291
Coefficient of determination (R2)0.085