Rokeach created the famous Rokeach Value Survey (RVS) , asking people to rank 18 terminal values from "most important" to "least important." The least important slot is the painful one—it doesn't mean you reject that value, only that you would sacrifice it for others.
Consider two of his terminal values:
Most people want both. But when you force a ranking, you reveal your true self. Will you drive an SUV to work (comfort) or take the bus to preserve the world of beauty? Your ranking is your behavior in disguise.
The most liberating takeaway from The Nature of Human Values is this: Maturity is the ability to rank.
Social media tells you that you can have every value simultaneously. Rokeach insists you cannot. Time is finite. Attention is finite. To be a responsible adult—or a responsible voter—you must decide which values will sit at #15 (valued, but sacrificed) and which sit at #1 (non-negotiable).
Trying to keep every value at #1 is not virtue; it is paralysis.
A common misconception Rokeach worked hard to correct is confusing values with attitudes. In a key chapter of The Nature of Human Values, he explains:
Rokeach famously wrote: “A value is a standard... It is a standard that guides and determines action, attitudes toward objects and situations, ideology, presentations of self to others, evaluations, judgments, justifications, comparisons of self with others, and attempts to influence others.”
In other words, to change a person’s attitude about a specific topic, you do not attack the attitude. You must appeal to their value system. For example, if someone opposes environmental regulations, you might reframe them not as "costly mandates" but as serving the terminal value of "A World of Beauty" or "Family Security" (clean air for children).
Before Rokeach, values were often seen as infinite and culturally relative. Rokeach’s deep story challenges this. He posits that while cultures differ, the number of core human values is surprisingly small. Rokeach created the famous Rokeach Value Survey (RVS)
Through his research, he identified 18 Terminal Values and 18 Instrumental Values. The profound implication is that human nature is universal in its building blocks; we are all playing with the same deck of cards, just arranging them in different orders. This allows for the scientific comparison of a politician, a prisoner, a student, and a factory worker on the same scale.
Rokeach defines value as:
“An enduring belief that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence.”
From this, he distinguishes:
| Type | Definition | Example | |------|------------|---------| | Terminal values | Desirable end-states of existence (goals worth achieving) | World peace, freedom, salvation, self-respect | | Instrumental values | Desirable modes of conduct (means to achieve terminal values) | Honest, ambitious, courageous, logical |
Each value has both personal and social preference dimensions. The total set of values is small (Rokeach identified 18 terminal + 18 instrumental values in his survey instrument).
Perhaps the most daring section of the book deals with value modification. In the 1970s, the dominant behaviorist view was that you change behavior through rewards/punishment. Rokeach argued that lasting change requires self-confrontation.
He describes a series of experiments where he gave the RVS to participants, then later showed them their own rankings alongside the rankings of a group they respected (e.g., peers). When a subject saw a glaring contradiction—e.g., they rated "Equality" very low but also rated "Broadminded" and "Loving" very high—they experienced a state of self-dissatisfaction.
To resolve this dissonance, they often changed their value ranking. And crucially, when the value ranking changed, so did attitudes and behaviors weeks later. This proved Rokeach’s central thesis: values are the independent variables that drive attitudes and actions. If you want to change society, you don’t just pass laws; you engage in value education. Most people want both
Rokeach tells us that humans operate on two distinct tracks simultaneously. This is the central structural insight of the book.
The "deep story" here is that conflict often arises when people share a Terminal Value (e.g., "We all want a safe society") but possess opposing Instrumental Values (e.g., "We should achieve safety through strict policing" vs. "We should achieve safety through social reform").
Milton Rokeach’s The Nature of Human Values moves beyond the idea that humans are merely products of their environment or their urges. It paints a picture of humans as architects of meaning, using a specific set of tools (values) to build a life that makes sense. The "deep story" is that by looking at what a person values most, you can predict where they will go, who they will associate with, and how they will navigate the moral landscape of their life.
Milton Rokeach's seminal work, The Nature of Human Values (1973), published by the Free Press, revolutionized social psychology by repositioning "values" as the most central and indispensable construct for understanding human behavior. Rokeach argued that while attitudes are specific to objects or situations, values are enduring, transcendental beliefs that serve as the internal "source code" for our actions, political affiliations, and religious beliefs. The Rokeach Definition of Values
In this foundational text, Rokeach defines a value as an "enduring belief that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode". He posits that human values are organized into a hierarchical value system, where each value is ranked by its relative importance. The Two-Fold Classification: Terminal vs. Instrumental
The core of Rokeach’s theory is the distinction between two types of values, which are measured using the widely adopted Rokeach Value Survey (RVS):
Terminal Values: These represent desirable "end-states of existence"—the ultimate life goals an individual strives to achieve.
Examples: A comfortable life, world peace, equality, family security, freedom, happiness, and wisdom.
Instrumental Values: These are "preferable modes of conduct"—the behavioral means used to reach terminal goals. Rokeach famously wrote: “A value is a standard
Examples: Ambition, broad-mindedness, capability, honesty, imagination, independence, and self-control. Impact on Research and Society
Rokeach’s 1973 work moved psychology beyond the laboratory and into applied settings. By measuring the relative ranking of these 36 values (18 terminal and 18 instrumental), researchers have been able to:
Values Evolution in Transitional China: An Institutional Perspective
The Nature of Human Values (1973) Milton Rokeach establishes a seminal framework for understanding values as the central, guiding principles of human behavior and belief systems
. He argues that values are more fundamental than attitudes, serving as the "internal reference points" from which attitudes and opinions are formed. Science Publications Core Definition and Assumptions Rokeach defines a value as an "enduring belief"
that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to its converse. His theory rests on five key assumptions: www.emerald.com
Every individual possesses a relatively small number of total values.
All humans possess the same basic values, but in different degrees of importance. Values are organized into an enduring "value system".
Values are influenced by culture, institutions, and personality.
The consequences of value priorities are visible in all social phenomena, such as political or religious affiliation. Science Publications The Rokeach Value Survey (RVS) The primary contribution of the work is the Rokeach Value Survey (RVS)
, which classifies human values into two distinct categories, each consisting of 18 items:
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