Despite post-election claims, Americans are not bitterly divided when it comes to moral values, says a U-M professor.

“Contrary to the perception of pundits and the general public that the nation is becoming increasingly polarized, most Americans continue to hold and share the traditional values upon which the democracy was founded more than 200 years ago—firm beliefs in religion and God, conservative family values, absolute moral authority, and intense national pride,” says sociologist Wayne Baker, a professor at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business and researcher at the Institute for Social Research (ISR).

“Despite the inflammatory rhetoric and attack ads of this year’s presidential race, there is no crisis of values. In fact, Americans tend to share attitudes, values and beliefs, and to be united when it comes to the most important values.”

In his new book, “America’s Crisis of Values: Reality and Perception,” published by Princeton University Press, Baker explores the moral terrain of America, analyzing the widely held perception that the nation is in moral decline and bitterly divided.

Using ISR’s World Values Surveys, Baker shows overwhelmingly that America has not lost its traditional values, that the nation compares favorably with other societies and that the “bitter divide” is largely a myth.

In addition to being one of the most traditional societies in the world, the United States also is one of the most religious, Baker says. Most Americans report that God is very important in their lives and a majority attends religious services.

For Americans, God, country and family are tightly connected. Americans, whether they are traditionalists or embrace secular-rational values that emphasize the right of personal choice, are among the world’s most patriotic.

The presidential campaign exaggerated the political and moral differences of Americans, Baker says. Even when Americans disagree about social and policy issues, their differences have been narrowing over time and most Americans share similar attitudes.

Baker says Americans have become more absolutist through the years, with increasing numbers reporting that they believe in God as the ultimate source of moral authority. A rising tide of moral absolutism in America has swept over all social classes, generations, men and women, whites and non-whites, married and single—all these groups have increasingly adopted absolute values, he says.

“However, the differences between moral absolutists and moral relativists are not big enough to conclude that they are irreconcilably divided,” Baker says. “There is sufficient overlap for common ground. Many absolutists and relativists share similar attitudes, feelings of interpersonal trust and similar levels of confidence in the nation’s institutions.”

Americans, Baker says, have retained their traditional values while increasingly embracing self-expression values. These values manifest themselves in rising environmental concerns, demands for equality, well-being, and the search for meaning and purpose in life beyond the mere consumption of goods and services.

“Americans are unusual in that they cherish traditional values as well as a high degree of self-expression,” he says. “Traditional values and self-expression values can be contradictory because the first demands obedience to an absolute moral authority such as God, while self-expression values require obedience to oneself as the source of judging what is right and wrong. This contradiction can lead to the feeling of a crisis of values, even when traditional values are strong and stable in America.”

The current debate about values, framed by presidential election politics, serves an important rhetorical function, Baker says. Repeated warnings, public alarm, and political and intellectual debates about the loss of traditional values or a bitter divide remind Americans of the ideals that undergird the nation.

The first chapter of “America’s Crisis of Values: Reality and Perception” is on Baker’s Web site, http://webuser.bus.umich.edu/wayneb.