One way to improve our data and, further, the possibility of firmer causal inferences, would be to obtain more information about the primary identities of Poles. Since identities are the primary building blocks of cultures, our empirical observation should start at this level. What is the proportion of individual and corporate identity holders as well as the various hybrid types in the population? How do these proportions vary regionally, and how are they distributed among the demographic and social categories? The evidence presented in chapter 4 has been circumstantial and indirect, as I have gathered it from the separate areas of religion, nationalism, and family life. Linking each bit of information with personal identities has involved a number of logical steps and theoretical assumptions.At the levels of aggregation where it has often been impossible to match identities with concrete persons, the resulting picture has been somewhat fuzzy: for example, Which specific areas in the far west and far east fit the description of the two cultures best? Where is the distinction hardest to make? Unambiguous data on society-wide distribution of identities at the individual level, obtained for instance through a representative national sample, would be an ideal starting point for a more rigorous analysis of the connection between identity, culture, socioeconomic factors, and the quality of democratic governance in Poland and elsewhere.

How to access personal identity in a manner that yields itself to systematic observation? We are dealing with a concept that is notoriously hard to observe. Many consider it beyond the reach of empirical science. I believe, to the contrary, that identities can be reliably accessed. The method proposed below is based on an extended interview—a conversation really—centered on the respondent's occupational career, life satisfaction, aspirations, and values. The aim is to organically tease out the themes that point to the prevalence of individual or corporate identity elements (the cathectic, the cognitive, and evaluative) as they have been discussed in chapter 2. Analytically, the interview zooms in on ways of fashioning personal biography and on the person's style of ethical reasoning. Regarding the former, two elements of biographical self-presentation are considered. Admission of past failures or its absence will be the indicator of cathethic individualism or corporatism, respectively.