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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 = 0.922287 X +6.239
Correlation coefficient (r)0.264
Coefficient of determination (R2)0.070

GDP per capita (current US$)
No. of data18
Regression equation
Y = 73178.656959 X +4901.552
Correlation coefficient (r)0.392
Coefficient of determination (R2)0.154

Life expectancy at birth - Both sexes (years)
No. of data18
Regression equation
Y = 7.678545 X +76.168
Correlation coefficient (r)0.366
Coefficient of determination (R2)0.134

Fertility rate, total (births per woman)
No. of data18
Regression equation
Y = -0.655076 X +1.987
Correlation coefficient (r)-0.247
Coefficient of determination (R2)0.061

Suicide - all ages (per 100,000 population)
No. of data18
Regression equation
Y = 8.548217 X +7.550
Correlation coefficient (r)0.289
Coefficient of determination (R2)0.084