You hear it a lot, particularly in political discussions: “they don’t share my values”. It’s often intended largely as “they’re a lesser person for not holding these values”, but that’s not always true.
In her book “I Never Thought of It That Way“, author Mónica Guzmán shares the idea of the Schwartz Value Survey and what it says about us. It outlines the 10 core values that we all hold to varying degrees:
- Benevolence: Helping those near you.
- Universality: Helping all people
- Security: Keeping your life stable.
- Achievement: Having a successful career.
- Hedonism: Striving for pleasure.
- Stimulation: The need for excitement.
- Power: The importance of social status.
- Self-direction: Striving for autonomy.
- Tradition: Holding to customs and ideas.
- Conformity: Staying within social norms.
Many of those values can somewhat contradict others, so you can’t score high in all of them. For example, if you think in terms of immigration policies, a high “security” score could conflict with a high “universality” score. Neither are wrong, but you can’t have both.
You can take a short test to get a rough idea of where you fit in, and here were the results of mine:
If we disagree on something and you think that we “don’t hold the same values”, you’re probably right! Everyone holds slightly different values, and someone with values different than yours doesn’t mean they’re a lesser person.
I encourage you to take the test for yourself and see where things line up. The next time someone seems to have a different outlook on the world, consider that they might still be a wonderful, caring person, and that they just have values that aren’t the same as yours.
