The protestant ethic among college students in two Chinese societies

The Mirels‐Garrett Protestant Ethic scale along with several sociodemographic and attitudinal measures was administered to a sample of Taiwanese college students and a sample of Hong Kong college students in an attempt to empirically investigate the Protestant Ethic in the Chinese culture. Analyses indicated that both samples of Chinese students exhibited lower scores on the scale than American students. The data suggests that compared to Taiwanese students, Hong Kong college students embraced less the Protestant Ethic and just world beliefs, and were less alienated and sexually permissive. However, they adhered more to authoritarianism than their counterparts in Taiwan. Among sociodemographic measures, type of parenting ,was found to be the only significant variable for the Protestant Ethic scores in both samples. Students raised in the dictatorially‐parented families tended to show stronger belief in the Protestant Ethic than those raised in the democratically‐parented families. Religion was not related to the Protestant Ethic scores, suggesting that the Protestant Ethic as not Protestant but represented a general value orientation cutting across all social groups among college students in Taiwan and Hong Kong.