Understanding Human Values: A Brief Introduction
Human values and their role in our emotions, desires and behaviours.
This article provides a brief introduction to human values, their classification, and their role in emotions, desires, and behaviour. It draws on the work of major scholars in the field of values, including Shalom Schwartz, Milton Rokeach, Ronald Inglehart and Geert Hofstede. A list of readings is provided at the end of the article.
It has been prepared with the help of Claude.ai and Google Scholar to support a one-day module run by UCL’s Centre for Behaviour Change on ‘Influencing Decision-Making and Motivation.’
The examples of values listed in this article can serve as a helpful reference when developing persuasive messaging, both for developing an understanding of the audience and identifying potentially valuable content.
What Are Values?
Values are beliefs about what is generally considered good and bad, which can influence our thoughts, emotions, motivation, and behaviour. It is helpful to distinguish values from evaluations, which can be thought of as beliefs about the desirability of specific scenarios. For example, the belief “stealing is bad” is a value, while “John stealing that car is bad” is an evaluation based on that value.
How Values Differ
Values are not universal or static. They differ significantly across individuals, groups and cultures, and over time:
Between individuals: Two neighbours might witness a homeless person asking for money. Lisa, who values compassion, believes “helping those in need is a moral obligation” and gives money. Mark, who values personal responsibility, believes “enabling dependency is harmful” and declines but offers information about job services instead.
Between groups: A tech startup values innovation and risk-taking, celebrating employees who “move fast and break things” even if projects fail. Meanwhile, a hospital in the same city prioritises safety and caution above all, where the principle of “first, do no harm” is reflected in extensive protocols and conservative decision-making.
Between cultures: In many East Asian cultures, filial piety—putting family obligations before individual desires—is a core value. A young adult might evaluate “staying home to care for ageing parents instead of pursuing a dream job abroad” as a good and honourable choice. In contrast, many Western cultures prioritise individual self-actualisation, where the same scenario might be evaluated as sacrificing personal growth.
Over time: In 1950s America, conformity was strongly valued—“fitting in and not standing out” was generally seen as virtuous. Today, authenticity and individual expression are more valued—“being true to yourself” is considered important even if it means standing out or being different.
How Values Function
Values lead to evaluations
Values can influence how we evaluate specific situations. For example, when Maria holds the value that “honesty is a good thing” and sees her colleague John claiming credit for something he had not done, she evaluates his behaviour as bad because it is dishonest. The general principle (honesty is good) generates a specific evaluation (John’s false claim is bad).
Values lead to emotions, motivation and behaviour
Values are an important source of emotion, and hence motivation and behaviour. For example, Sarah holds a deep value that "protecting nature and wildlife is fundamentally important." One morning, she reads a news article about a proposed development that would destroy a local wetland habitat where endangered birds nest.
Upon reading this, Sarah feels a surge of anger and distress, not because it affects her personally, but because the destruction violates something she considers sacred. This emotional response directly motivates her behaviour: she spends her evening researching the development, contacts local environmental groups, writes letters to city council members, and organises her neighbours to attend a public hearing.
Thus, values do not just influence our evaluations intellectually - they generate emotional responses when we see them upheld or violated, and these emotions can become powerful motivators for behaviour.
Values can be used as post-hoc justifications
However, values can also be used to rationalise desires that stem from other motivations. David discovers that a co-worker has been spreading rumours about him. Angry and wanting revenge, David ‘accidentally’ spills coffee over his co-worker’s computer keyboard. He justifies this by saying to himself that he is delivering ‘justice’.
A classification of values
Values can be organised in many different ways. One potentially practical approach is to consider what is being valued, encompassing both positive and negative valuations. The following examples are drawn from research conducted across multiple cultures.
Conditions
Positive: Life, well-being, health, abundance, stability, peace, harmony, prosperity, safety, comfort, fulfilment, achievement, contentment, calmness, security, vitality, balance, tranquillity, success, clarity, enlightenment, knowledge, wisdom, understanding.
Negative: Death, disease, suffering, chaos, conflict, poverty, danger, discomfort, emptiness, anxiety, stress, insecurity, weakness, imbalance, turmoil, failure, misinformation, superstition, ignorance, confusion, delusion.
Personal Characteristics
Positive: Honesty, compassion, loyalty, courage, diligence, generosity, integrity, humility, patience, perseverance, kindness, responsibility, discipline, authenticity, empathy, curiosity, critical thinking, open-mindedness, expertise, intelligence, skill.
Negative: Dishonesty, cruelty, cowardice, laziness, greed, selfishness, arrogance, impatience, weakness, irresponsibility, recklessness, vanity, hypocrisy, callousness, vindictiveness, foolishness, closed-mindedness, prejudice, incompetence.
Actions
Positive: Helping others, keeping promises, creating, sharing, teaching, protecting, forgiving, listening, encouraging, rescuing, donating, building, celebrating.
Negative: Betrayal, violence, lying, stealing, harming, cheating, abandoning, ignoring, bullying, manipulating, exploiting, destroying, hoarding, discriminating, wasting.
Change
Positive: Growth, healing, regeneration, natural cycles, development, renewal, evolution, maturation, blossoming, restoration, adaptation, progress, innovation, advancement, discovery.
Negative: Destruction, decay, deterioration, waste, degeneration, collapse, regression, corruption, erosion, stagnation, decline, breakdown, contamination, loss of heritage, decline, missed opportunities, obsolescence.
Abstract principles
Positive: Justice, equality, truth, fairness, dignity, rights, liberty, honour, merit, respect, responsibility.
Negative: Injustice, inequality, oppression, falsehood, discrimination, violation, tyranny, dishonour, corruption, prejudice, intolerance, disrespect, irresponsibility, exploitation.
The environment
Positive: Nature, wilderness, biodiversity, fertility, seasonal cycles.
Negative: Pollution, extinction, environmental destruction, contamination, habitat loss.
Social relationships
Positive: Community, friendship, cooperation, unity, family bonds, teamwork, solidarity, partnership, trust, belonging, intimacy, support networks.
Negative: Isolation, hostility, division, alienation, conflict, exclusion, discrimination, social fragmentation.
Experiences
Positive: Beauty, pleasure, meaning, joy, wonder, serenity, inspiration, fulfilment, bliss, enchantment, satisfaction, delight, transcendence.
Negative: Ugliness, pain, emptiness, despair, misery, anguish, horror, disgust, meaninglessness, tedium, dread, torment.
Social systems
Positive: Order, democracy, tradition, continuity, organisation, structure, efficiency, accountability, transparency, meritocracy, public service, civic duty.
Negative: Anarchy, tyranny, chaos, authoritarianism, bureaucratic dysfunction, nepotism, abuse of power, lawlessness.
Higher-Order Values
Examining patterns across the above categories reveals several higher-order values that apparently serve as a basis for more specific values:
Wellbeing
Compassion, health, safety, prosperity, healing, support networks, comfort, vitality, justice.
Balance
Peace, stability, cooperation, unity, natural cycles, governance, tranquillity, collaboration, equilibrium.
Development
Learning, progress, innovation, evolution, transformation, education, advancement.
Truth
Honesty, integrity, transparency, understanding, clarity.
Order
Organisation, discipline, structure, clarity, accountability, rule of law.
Beauty
Aesthetic appreciation, inspiration, transcendence, quality, craftsmanship, artistic achievement.
Connection
Community, friendship, belonging, collaboration, empathy, fellowship, intimacy, solidarity, social bonds.
Agency
Liberty, autonomy, rights, self-determination, independence, personal choice.
Scope of affiliation
Values are not universally applied. They are typically applied to entities to which we feel some affiliation. For example, when considering wellbeing, many of us tend to experience a gradient of affiliation, with close family and friends at the top and people with whom we feel no connection much further down. The well-being of other species is generally considered less important than that of humans. In some cases, people even negatively value the well-being of individuals and social groups with whom they feel no affiliation.
However, all this is subject to significant variation, so that for some people, the well-being of members of some other species is of at least as great importance as that of many humans.
Conclusion
Values are an important part of our experience that play a role in generating emotions, desires and behaviour. They vary across individuals, groups, cultures, and over time. They can be classified according to what is valued, such as personal characteristics, actions, and conditions; and more specific values, such as compassion, appear to derive from broader values, such as wellbeing. People vary in their scope of affiliation, which influences the scope of application of many values.
Readings
1. Hofstede, G. Culture’s Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values. (SAGE, 1984).
2. Inglehart, R. Modernization and Postmodernization: Cultural, Economic, and Political Change in 43 Societies. (Princeton University Press, 2020).
3. Inglehart, R., Basáñez, M. & Moreno, A. M. Human Values and Beliefs: A Cross-Cultural Sourcebook : Political, Religious, Sexual, and Economic Norms in 43 Societies ; Findings from the 1990-1993 World Value Survey. (University of Michigan Press, 1998).
4. Kheirandish, S., Funk, M., Wensveen, S., Verkerk, M. & Rauterberg, M. A comprehensive value framework for design. Technology in Society 62, 101302 (2020).
5. Renner, W. Human values: a lexical perspective. Personality and Individual Differences 34, 127–141 (2003).
6. Rokeach, M. The Nature of Human Values. x, 438 (Free Press, New York, NY, US, 1973).
7. Schwartz, S. An Overview of the Schwartz Theory of Basic Values. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture 2, (2012).
8. Schwartz, S. H. & Bilsky, W. Toward a universal psychological structure of human values. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 53, 550–562 (1987).
9. Schwartz, S. H. Are There Universal Aspects in the Structure and Contents of Human Values? Journal of Social Issues 50, 19–45 (1994).
10. Schwartz, S. H. Universals in the Content and Structure of Values: Theoretical Advances and Empirical Tests in 20 Countries. in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (ed. Zanna, M. P.) vol. 25 1–65 (Academic Press, 1992).
11. Schwartz, S. Value Priorities and Behavior: Applying a Theory of Integrated Value Systems. in The Psychology of Values (Psychology Press, 1996).
12. Talevich, J. R., Read, S. J., Walsh, D. A., Iyer, R. & Chopra, G. Toward a comprehensive taxonomy of human motives. PLOS ONE 12, e0172279 (2017).
13. World Values Survey. Wikipedia (2025).