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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 Japan67.2%
7 New Zealand66.8%
7 Switzerland 66.8%
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 = 0.345118 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 = 72608.592494 X +6555.502
Correlation coefficient (r)0.350
Coefficient of determination (R2)0.122

Life expectancy at birth - Both sexes (years)
No. of data18
Regression equation
Y = 9.246812 X +75.075
Correlation coefficient (r)0.358
Coefficient of determination (R2)0.128

Fertility rate, total (births per woman)
No. of data18
Regression equation
Y = -0.616698 X +2.000
Correlation coefficient (r)-0.216
Coefficient of determination (R2)0.047

Suicide, age-standardized (per 100 000 population)
No. of data18
Regression equation
Y = 6.309295 X +6.237
Correlation coefficient (r)0.275
Coefficient of determination (R2)0.076