Data Sheet 1_Revealing cross-national differences and similarities in relations between human values and climate policy support by Mixture Multigroup Structural Equation Modeling: a new tool for comparative research.docx

With growing availability of large-scale international surveys, social scientists are increasingly interested in comparing relations among latent variables, such as values and attitudes, across countries using Multigroup or Multilevel Structural Equation Modeling. However, these two methods require numerous pairwise comparisons to pinpoint which groups differ and which groups share similar structural relations. Mixture Multigroup Structural Equation Modeling (MMG-SEM) has recently been proposed as a novel alternative to identify clusters of groups with similar structural relations while accounting for measurement invariance and non-invariance. Despite its potential, a practical guide for applying MMG-SEM to cross-national survey data remains limited. This study provides a step-by-step tutorial to address this gap, illustrated by an analysis of the European Social Survey (ESS) Round 8 data on climate change attitudes. Our results reveal cross-national differences and similarities in how human values influence climate policy support, and how these relations are mediated by climate change beliefs across 23 countries. The clustering of the countries is primarily driven by differences in the effect of self-transcendence and conservation, whereas the self-enhancement effects are weak for all countries. In addition, the clustering results organize the countries into four types: value-driven but belief-cautious skeptics, value-driven and belief-amplifying advocates, paradoxical value-pathway actors, and value-detached pragmatists.