Cultures & Publics

Countries that prize making parents proud tend to be seen as more corrupt

It holds across 88 countries' public-sector ratings. What happens when you enforce a rule?

Open the poston Instagram · 6 November 2026

The carousel

All 7 cards as they were posted. Scroll sideways to read them in order.

  1. Cover stating that countries that prize making parents proud tend to be seen as more corrupt, across 88 countries' ratings of perceived public-sector corruption, and asking what happens when a rule is enforced. Across the top of the card, a stock photograph by cottonbro studio on Pexels fades down into the copy: a smiling mother and father hug their grinning son, who holds a small trophy.
  2. Four country rows of 100 circles, each in four blocks of 25, per 100 people who answered. Lit circles agree that making parents proud is a life goal: 27 in Finland, 58 in Spain, 76 in China and 99 in Indonesia. Names and family-importance counts stay on the left: 84, 87, 86 and 98 in 100. Each count follows its row. Each country keeps its marker on the scatter.
  3. Scatter of 88 countries: parental-pride agreement versus 100 minus the 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index, on a 0-100 scale where 100 means seen as most corrupt. The fitted line rises, r=+0.77. Finland, Spain, China and Indonesia keep their shapes and bold names; Singapore and Russia, the largest exceptions, are also named. Survey years 2017-2022. The two go together, which is not the same as one causing the other.
  4. Waterfall for the same countries on the 0-100 public-sector corruption rating, comparing a country where 9 in 10 agree that making parents proud is a life goal with one where 6 in 10 do. It opens on: comparing equally rich countries cuts the link in half, but doesn't erase it. Ignoring income, the rating is about 29 points worse. Comparing equally rich countries, 14 of those points go and about 15 are still there. Only income is held equal.
  5. Statement card set on a photograph by Erik Mclean on Pexels of a parking ticket tucked under a car's windscreen wiper: the answer is enforcement. Until 2002, diplomatic immunity let UN diplomats ignore New York parking tickets, and the next card shows what happened once the rule was enforced. It introduces Fisman and Miguel's study: one narrow setting, not corruption in general.
  6. Line chart of unpaid New York parking tickets left by UN diplomats each month, December 1997 to November 2005. Tickets ran at roughly 2,500 to 4,800 a month, fell after September 2001, and dropped to near zero once plates could be taken in November 2002: 18,033 in the year before against 554 in the year after, 97% fewer. Matched by home country, every third by parental pride fell below one unpaid ticket per diplomat a year; no diplomat was surveyed.
  7. Conclusion card that opens on a stock photograph by cottonbro studio on Pexels, fading into the copy: a mother, father and son hug in a hallway. You don't have to love your family less, but the rules have to bite for everyone. Unpaid parking tickets are one narrow case, not corruption in general, but they suggest change starts with the rule. The source panel credits every source in the deck and names editor Carlos D. Prado S., followed by an invitation to send the post on.

The caption

Where more people live to make their parents proud, the public sector tends to be rated more corrupt.

Is making your parents proud one of your main goals in life? In Finland about 1 in 4 say yes; in Indonesia, nearly everyone. Across 88 countries, the more people say yes, the more corrupt the public sector is seen; Singapore and Russia stray furthest from the line.

Is it just money? It doesn't seem like it: After comparing equally rich countries, the correlation is still there.

What does enforcement do? Until 2002, immunity let UN diplomats ignore New York parking tickets. Once plates could be taken, unpaid tickets fell 97% from one year to the next. Matched by country, those from places with the most parental pride had left about nine times as many unpaid per diplomat as the least; afterwards every group fell below one a year and the gap shrank to about three times.

So, you don't have to love your family less, but the rules have to bite for everyone.

Photos: cottonbro studio on Pexels; Erik Mclean on Pexels.

#Family #Corruption #PublicTrust #ConflictOfInterest #PublicService

What each card says, and where it comes from

Every card of the carousel, in order, with the sources behind it.

  1. 01

    Cover

    Countries that prize making parents proud tend to be seen as more corrupt

    From EVS & World Values Survey · Transparency International

    Photo: cottonbro studio on Pexels (Pexels License).

  2. 02

    WOULD YOU SAY YES?

    Only 1 in 4 in Finland say making parents proud is a life goal, but Indonesia is another story

    From EVS & World Values Survey

  3. 03

    DOES IT LINE UP WITH CORRUPTION?

    More people wanting to make parents proud: More corruption in the public sector

    From EVS & World Values Survey · Transparency International

  4. 04

    ISN'T THAT JUST MONEY?

    Is it just income? No

    From EVS & World Values Survey · Transparency International · World Bank

  5. 05

    SO WHAT LOWERS IT?

    Enforcement

    From Fisman and Miguel (2007)

    Photo: Erik Mclean on Pexels (Pexels License).

  6. 06

    WHAT DID THE DIPLOMATS DO?

    After enforcement, unpaid tickets fell 97% from one year to the next

    From Fisman and Miguel (2007) · EVS & World Values Survey

  7. 07

    SO WHAT SHOULD CHANGE?

    You don't have to love your family less, but the rules have to bite for everyone

    From Fisman and Miguel (2007)

    Photo: cottonbro studio on Pexels (Pexels License).

Sources

For each source, what it supports in this story and what it cannot tell us.

  1. FC01

    EVS & World Values Survey — country crosstabs 2017-2022

    What it supports
    Family importance, parents-proud agreement, bribe attitudes; exact 2026-08-06 cached tables.
    What it cannot tell us
    Online heading says Wave 7, but includes EVS and 92 territories; see FC10 and analysis.md. Substantive-answer denominator.

    Read on 5 November 2026

  2. FC02

    Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index 2025

    What it supports
    Country-level perceived public-sector corruption outcome.
    What it cannot tell us
    Widely used index; perception-based, not direct observed corruption.

    Read on 5 November 2026

  3. A02

    Offline rebuilt family analysis and pinned-source extractor

    What it supports
    Source/denominator audit; country distributions and scatter labels by rule, CPI slopes and their 6-in-10 to 9-in-10 restatement, bribe attitudes, actual monthly parking records and equal twelve-month comparison, reproduction of FC09's published results, diplomat thirds, and one declared pride/tickets test.
    What it cannot tell us
    Exploratory; committed extracts with SHA-256 provenance; human review remains pending.

    Read on 5 November 2026

  4. FC10

    EVS & World Values Survey — joint 2017-2022 documentation

    What it supports
    Combined 92-country/territory coverage versus 66 for WVS alone; survey dates and common items.
    What it cannot tell us
    Primary documentation; exact version of the archived online tables is not established.

    Read on 5 November 2026

  5. FC03

    World Bank via Our World in Data — GDP per capita

    What it supports
    Income sensitivity check.
    What it cannot tell us
    Reputable aggregator; GDP is only a crude confounder.

    Read on 5 November 2026

  6. FC09

    Fisman and Miguel 2007, "Corruption, Norms, and Legal Enforcement"

    What it supports
    Norms and enforcement both matter.
    What it cannot tell us
    Peer-reviewed revealed-behavior study; not a family-loyalty measure.

    Read on 5 November 2026

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