Preference for modernization is universal, but expected modernization trajectories are culturally diversified: A <scp>nine‐country</scp> study of folk theories of societal development

Cultural sensitivity in societal development has been advocated for since at least the 1960s but remained understudied. Our goal is to address this gap and investigate folk theories of development. We aimed identify both universal culturally specific lay beliefs about what constitutes good collected data from 2,684 participants Japan, Hong Kong (China), Poland, Turkey, Brazil, France, Nigeria, USA, Canada. measured preferences 28 aims. used multidimensional scaling, analysis variance, pairwise comparisons country‐specific preferences. results demonstrate that people understand as modernization fairly across countries, pathways towards these tend vary between countries. distinguished three facets modernization—foundational aims (e.g., trust, economic development), welfare poverty eradication, education), inclusive openness, gender equality)—and incorporated them into a meta‐theory modernization. In all nine were preferred more than conventional military, demographic growth). propose method implementing our findings sensitive index.