Stability of Worldviews and Their Organizing Structures Over Time: A Retrospective Analysis

The scientific literature widely recognizes the role of worldviews in influencing psychological and socio-cultural phenomena. The investigation into the temporal stability of worldviews has mainly focused on the individual and population levels, ignoring the question of the stability of their content. This study adopts the Semiotic Cultural Psychology Theory (SCPT) to analyze the stability of worldviews and their organizational structures. Through the analysis of data collected at three distinct time frames (2016, 2021 and 2022), the results showed that the content of worldviews in the Italian context maintained significant stability over time – although varying in incidence –, while their underlying structures demonstrated even greater stability. These results provide solid empirical support for SCPT and suggest new opportunities for the development of more effective measurement tools useful for analyzing the impact of symbolic universes and lines of semiotic force on cultural dynamics and human behavior.