A segmentation and characterization of consumers affected by rising food prices.

The food price inflation in 2022 has put considerable pressure on some consumers, leading to changes in their food choice and consumption behavior. To gain a better understanding of consumers' responses to rising food prices, we conducted an online survey among 1000 consumers in Germany, in which they were asked to self-report the extent of their changes during a period from the beginning of 2022 to November 2022. A principal component analysis was conducted to summarize the queried items into three factors, which were subsequently used for a cluster analysis. The emerging clusters were characterized in terms of sociodemographic as well as psychographic variables, namely locus of control, life satisfaction, optimism, pessimism, human values, and food values. The segment that appears to be most affected by rising food prices consists of about 28% of the sample's respondents and is characterized by a strong engagement in saving behaviors. These consumers are less satisfied with their lives and more pessimistic, corresponding to their lower incomes and lower likelihood to be fully employed. Communication and policy measures need to be designed in a way that these consumers regain stability and become more confident about the future.

Unveiling Human Values: Analyzing Emotions behind Arguments.

Detecting the underlying human values within arguments is essential across various domains, ranging from social sciences to recent computational approaches. Identifying these values remains a significant challenge due to their vast numbers and implicit usage in discourse. This study explores the potential of emotion analysis as a key feature in improving the detection of human values and information extraction from this field. It aims to gain insights into human behavior by applying intensive analyses of different levels of human values. Additionally, we conduct experiments that integrate extracted emotion features to improve human value detection tasks. This approach holds the potential to provide fresh insights into the complex interactions between emotions and values within discussions, offering a deeper understanding of human behavior and decision making. Uncovering these emotions is crucial for comprehending the characteristics that underlie various values through data-driven analyses. Our experiment results show improvement in the performance of human value detection tasks in many categories.

Basic human values drive food choice decision-making in different food environments of Kenya and Tanzania.

Increased access to a variety of foods in low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs) has led to greater autonomy in food choice decision-making. Autonomy allows individuals to make decisions through negotiation of considerations in ways that are consistent with basic values. The aim of this study was to identify and describe how basic human values drive food choice in two diverse populations with transitioning food environments living in the neighboring East African countries of Kenya and Tanzania. Secondary data analysis was carried out on focus group discussions conducted with men and women in Kenya (n = 28) and Tanzania (n = 28) as part of prior studies on food choice. A priori coding based on Schwartz's theory of basic human values was conducted, followed by a narrative comparative analysis, which included review by original principal investigators. Values of conservation (security, conformity, tradition), openness to change (self-directed thought and action, stimulation, indulgence), self-enhancement (achievement, power, face), and self-transcendence (benevolence-dependability and -caring) were prominent drivers of food choice in both settings. Participants described how values were negotiated and highlighted existing tensions. For example, the value of tradition was cited as important in both settings but changing food contexts (e.g., new foods, diverse neighborhoods) increased prioritization of values like stimulation, indulgence, and self-directed thought and action. The application of a basic values framework was useful for understanding food choice in both settings. A focused understanding of how values drive food choice decision-making in the context of changing food availability in LMICs is essential for the promotion of sustainable healthy diets.

Do left-wingers discriminate? A cross-country study on the links between political orientation, values, moral foundations, and the Covid-19 passport.

To increase Covid-19 vaccine uptake and protect vulnerable people, many countries have introduced a Covid-19 passport in 2021, allowing vaccinated individuals to access indoor facilities more freely and travel to foreign countries. However, the passport has had unintended consequences as it discriminates against those who do not want to get vaccinated for medical, religious, or political reasons, or those who do not have access to vaccines. The present study (N = 678) assessed across Brazil, UK, USA, and a group of other countries, the links between political orientation, human values, and moral foundations, and attitudes towards the Covid-19 passport and whether people perceive it as a discriminatory measure. Results showed that left-wingers, typically more inclined to recognize discrimination, favor the passport more and perceive it as less discriminatory than right-wingers. This pattern remains consistent even after controlling for human values and moral foundations, independently predicting attitudes towards the passport. Overall, our findings provide novel insights into a context in which left-wingers support measures that involuntarily discriminate against certain groups. Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-023-04554-9.

Basic human values and sick leave: A study combining two-wave survey data with longitudinal register data.

There is growing recognition that dispositional factors and social norms can predict work absence. Human values have been linked to related concepts, including work commitment and receipt of disability pension; however, there is a lack of research on whether human values are associated with sickness absence. We address this issue by combining survey data from two waves (2007, 2017) of the Norwegian Life-Course, Ageing and Generation Study (N = 1,330) with longitudinal register data on sickness absence between survey waves. Stepwise regression analyses showed that, out of Schwartz's 10 basic values, achievement was prospectively associated with higher levels of self-reported sick leave, even when controlling for a variety of potential confounders. Self-direction was also related to higher risk of self-reported sick leave in the adjusted analysis. Conservation values (security and conformity) were related to stricter attitudes toward sick leave when controlling for potential confounders, while stimulation was associated with lenient sick leave attitudes in the adjusted analysis. None of the human values were prospectively associated with longer-term register-based sick leave beyond bivariate correlations. We conclude that broad human values to some extent predict attitudes toward sick leave and self-certified sick leave where persons may vary according to which degree they consider sick leave to be necessary and appropriate, while human values do not predict long-term, physician-certified sickness absence. Future research may examine whether health- or work-specific values have greater explanatory power for sick leave, including long-term sickness absence that is typically more closely linked to more serious health problems.

Religiosity Decline in Europe: Age, Generation, and the Mediating Role of Shifting Human Values.

Despite the fact that age is associated with higher religiosity, the aging European population has experienced a noticeable religiosity decline over recent decades. This study aimed to explain this paradox and to link it to an intergenerational shift in the pattern of values (as conceptualized by Shalom Schwartz). We conducted extended mediation analyses on the relationships between generational affiliation and the level of personal religiosity via human values in two studies (European Social Survey round 7, N = 29,775; and European Social Survey rounds 1-9, N = 224,314). Our results confirm a pronounced trend of religiosity decline and explain this process by changes in personal values. In particular, Europe's generational increase in openness to change values explains religiosity decline above and beyond the effect of people's developmental age. We conclude that the perspective of human values provides a significant rationale for further research on religiosity, in relation to both past and future generations of Europeans.

Who prioritizes the economy over health? The role of political orientation and human values.

One of the main challenges governments faced during the Covid-19 pandemic was to balance economic considerations with protecting the health of people (i.e., economic vs humanitarian motives). In the present study (N = 296), we investigated whether human values, political orientation, and fear of Covid-19 predicted economic and humanitarian motives. We found that people holding self-enhancement and normative values, had lower levels of Covid-19 fear, and were more right-leaning in terms of their political orientation, tended to prioritize the economy. In contrast, people valuing normative values less, interactive values more, reported higher levels of Covid-19 related fear, and were more left-leaning, tended to prioritize the health of people. Importantly, values explained variance above and beyond political orientation and fear of Covid-19. Together, our findings highlight the importance of values in decision making.

Testing the parasite-stress theory of sociality based on the circular model of human values: A multilevel analysis approach.

Little research has tested the parasite-stress theory of sociality based on a well-framed model of personal values using a multilevel analysis conducted on multinational samples. To robustly examined the validity of this novel theory of cultural evolution, this study used multilevel data of European Social Survey (from 2002 to 2016, 32 countries, N = 374,730) and World Values Survey (from 2005 to 2014, 80 countries, N = 173,540) to investigate the relationships between pathogen prevalence and the conflicting values dimensions (Conservation versus Openness to change; Self-enhancement versus Self-transcendence) of the circular model of human values, accounting for the micro- (age, sex, religious belief, education, and income) and macro-level predictors (modernization and cultural similarity). Results did not support the parasite-stress theory at both the country and individual levels when controlling for a composite index of modernization. Across all analyses, modernization remained a significant predictor of values even when controlling for cultural similarity. No conclusions changed when using an alternative parasite stress estimate. These findings support the modernization theory of value-change but challenge the roles of infectious diseases in cultural evolution.

Stability and change of basic personal values in early adolescence: A 2-year longitudinal study.

OBJECTIVE: We examined patterns of change and stability in the whole set of 10 Schwartz values over 2 years during early adolescence. METHOD: Participants completed the Portrait Values Questionnaire repeatedly throughout the junior high school years. The study involved six waves of data and a total of 382 respondents aged 10 years at the first measurement occasion (43% female). We investigated multiple types of stability in the values: mean-level, rank-order, and ipsative stability. RESULTS: At the mean-level, self-enhancement, and Openness to change values increased in importance. Self-direction and hedonism values showed the greatest increase-about one-third of a standard deviation. Conservation and self-transcendence values did not change with the exception of tradition, which decreased slightly. After correcting for measurement error, rank-order stability coefficients ranged from .39 (hedonism) to .77 (power). Correlations between value hierarchies measured 2 years apart were ≥.85 for 75% of respondents, and ≤.12 for 5% of the respondents. Thus only a small proportion of participants experienced a marked change in the relative importance they ascribed to the 10 values. CONCLUSIONS: Results are discussed and related to earlier findings on patterns and magnitude of value change during other periods of the life span.

Two Genealogies of Human Values: Nietzsche Versus Edward O. Wilson on the Consilience of Philosophy, Science and Technology.

In the twenty-first century, Stephen Hawking proclaimed the death of philosophy. Only science can address philosophy's perennial questions about human values. The essay first examines Nietzsche's nineteenth century view to the contrary that philosophy alone can create values. A critique of Nietzsche's contention that philosophy rather than science is competent to judge values follows. The essay then analyzes Edward O. Wilson's claim that his scientific research provides empirically-based answers to philosophy's questions about human values. Wilson's bold new hypothesis about the 'social conquest of the earth' challenges Nietzsche's vision of philosophy's mission. Confronting both Nietzsche and Wilson, the essay then considers three theoretical proposals for a consilience of philosophy, science, engineering and technology. The conclusion presents a working African model of consilience that addresses the existential problem of poverty in the Global South.

Personal values among undergraduate nursing students: A cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Personal values influence nursing students' development of professional values, which affect professional outcomes, and how nursing students react to different situations. Personal values can be shaped by different factors, including culture, gender, and age. AIMS: To explore personal values held by nursing students, and to verify if and how gender and year of study affect nursing students' personal values. RESEARCH DESIGN: A multicenter, cross-sectional study was used. PARTICIPANTS AND RESEARCH CONTEXT: The whole population of nursing undergraduate students available at the time was recruited from eight centers of two Universities, composing a sample of 947 students. Demographic data were collected and it was administered the Portrait Values Questionnaire. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS: Ethical approval was obtained from the Institutional Review Boards of the University of the participating centers. FINDINGS: The study sample was mainly composed of young (92.6%, n = 877), female (77.3%, n = 732), Italian (95.8%, n = 907), and unmarried (98.6%, n = 934) nursing students. The most important value for nursing students, consistently through the years of nursing school, was Self-transcendence, which has the motivational emphasis on helping others and selflessness. Then, we found that male students had higher levels of Power (p < 0.001) and Achievement (p = 0.031), while female students outscored male students in Benevolence (p = 0.005) and Security (p = 0.006). Year of study showed no statistically significant difference. DISCUSSION: Nursing students express high levels in hetero-directed values. Male nursing students, although they choose a stereotypically feminine profession, outscored females in stereotypical masculine values such as dominance and success. This is the first study that describes the personal value profile of undergraduate nursing students, according to the Theory of Basic Human Values, and it is a starting point for future research. CONCLUSION: Nursing educators might want to consider the findings from this study while guiding students in developing awareness for their personal values.

Explaining voting in the UK's 2016 EU referendum: Values, attitudes to immigration, European identity and political trust.

We consider the role of values as determinants of voting in the UK's 2016 EU referendum. First, we consider and clarify 'values' conceptually, before proceeding to utilise Schwartz's basic human values as the most appropriate. Second, we theorise how these basic human values determine both voting in the referendum as well as three of the most consistently demonstrated determinants of voting in that referendum: attitudes to immigration, identifying as European and trust in politicians. Finally, we demonstrate that this psychological theoretical framework effectively predicts voting behaviour in the referendum using multigroup structural equation modelling. Overall, we show that voting dynamics in the referendum are likely to reflect deeper, more personal psychological predispositions than those captured by existing explanations. In doing so, we make an original contribution to the literature on political psychology related to Brexit, Euroscepticism, political attitudes and electoral behaviour.

A triage framework for managing novel, hybrid, and designed marine ecosystems.

The novel ecosystem (NE) concept has been discussed in terrestrial restoration ecology over the last 15 years but has not yet found much traction in the marine context. Against a background of unprecedented environmental change, managers of natural marine resources have portfolios full of altered systems for which restoration to a previous historical baseline may be impractical for ecological, social, or financial reasons. In these cases, the NE concept is useful for weighing options and emphasizes the risk of doing nothing by forcing questions regarding the value of novelty and how it can best be managed in the marine realm. Here, we explore how the concept fits marine ecosystems. We propose a scheme regarding how the NE concept could be used as a triage framework for use in marine environments within the context of a decision framework that explicitly considers changed ecosystems and whether restoration is the best or only option. We propose a conceptual diagram to show where marine NEs fit in the continuum of unaltered to shifted marine ecosystems. Overall, we suggest that the NE concept is of interest to marine ecologists and resource managers because it introduces a new vocabulary for considering marine systems that have been changed through human actions but have not shifted to an alternate stable state. Although it remains to be seen whether the concept of marine NEs leads to better conservation and restoration decisions, we posit that the concept may help inform management decisions in an era of unprecedented global marine change.

Ethics-relevant values in adulthood: Longitudinal findings from the life and time study.

OBJECTIVE: This study investigates a set of variables related to the relative valuing of narrow self-interest versus the concerns of a larger community. These values likely capture stable dispositions. Additionally, because ethics-relevant values are associated with ongoing cultural and moral socialization, they may develop over time as in May's theory of "mature" values. METHOD: We administered eight value priority scales (Mature Values, Unmitigated Self-Interest, Materialism, Financial Aspirations, and Horizontal and Vertical Individualism and Collectivism) to a national community sample (N = 864, 66% female, 71% White, mean age 36) on four occasions approximately one year apart (Time 4 N = 570). We examined the mean-level change as cross-sectional age differences and longitudinal change, and rank-order stability. Correlations with Big Five/Big Six personality traits are reported. RESULTS: As people grew older, they increased in Mature Values and Horizontal and Vertical Collectivism, and decreased in Unmitigated Self-Interest, Materialism, and Vertical Individualism. Rank-order stability of the values was nearly as high as personality traits over three years. Stability increased with age for some scales. DISCUSSION: The stability of values scores suggests that they capture dispositional aspects, but age differences and longitudinal trends are also consistent with the hypothesis of socialization toward more inclusive value priorities.

The ICN code of ethics for nurses: a time for revision.

Since its development in 1953, the International Council of Nursing's Code of Ethics for Nurses has been revised a number of times and adopted or adapted as a guide for nurses in many countries. The Code serves as a critical model for ethical standards in the nursing profession, stressing responsibility and advocacy for the human rights of patients, their families and communities, as well as social issues, the work of nurses within health care systems and working with other health professionals. The most recent edition of the Code (2012) is now in the process of revision by an international Steering Committee. This policy paper describes the meaning of the Code, as well as the processes in place to develop a revised Code that is better fitted for the current needs of nurses around the globe.

Need for Affect and Attitudes Toward Drugs: The Mediating Role of Values.

Human values and affective traits were found to predict attitudes toward the use of different types of drugs (e.g., alcohol, marijuana, and other illegal drugs). In this study (N = 196, Mage = 23.09), we aimed to gain a more comprehensive understanding of those predictors of attitudes toward drug use in a mediated structural equation model, providing a better overview of a possible motivational path that drives to such a risky behavior. Specifically, we predicted and found that the relations between need for affect and attitudes toward drug use were mediated by excitement values. Also, results showed that excitement values and need for affect positively predicted attitudes toward the use of drugs, whereas normative values predicted it negatively. The pattern of results remained the same when we investigated attitudes toward alcohol, marijuana, or illegal drugs separately. Overall, the findings indicate that emotions operate via excitement and normative values to influence risk behavior.

Predicting Entrepreneurial Career Intentions: Values and the Theory of Planned Behavior.

Integrating predictions from the theory of human values with the theory of planned behavior (TPB), our primary goal is to investigate mechanisms through which individual values are related to entrepreneurial career intentions using a sample of 823 students from four European countries. We find that openness and self-enhancement values relate positively to entrepreneurial career intentions and that these relationships are partly mediated by attitudes toward entrepreneurship, self-efficacy, and, to a lesser extent, by social norms. Values and TPB constructs partially mediated cross-country differences in entrepreneurial intentions. Spanish students showed lower entrepreneurial intentions as compared to Dutch, German, and Polish students, which could be traced back to lower self-enhancement values (power and achievement), less positive attitudes toward entrepreneurship, and differences in social norms.

A Hedonism Hub in the Human Brain.

Human values are abstract ideals that motivate behavior. The motivational nature of human values raises the possibility that they might be underpinned by brain structures that are particularly involved in motivated behavior and reward processing. We hypothesized that variation in subcortical hubs of the reward system and their main connecting pathway, the superolateral medial forebrain bundle (slMFB) is associated with individual value orientation. We conducted Pearson's correlation between the scores of 10 human values and the volumes of 14 subcortical structures and microstructural properties of the medial forebrain bundle in a sample of 87 participants, correcting for multiple comparisons (i.e.,190). We found a positive association between the value that people attach to hedonism and the volume of the left globus pallidus (GP).We then tested whether microstructural parameters (i.e., fractional anisotropy and myelin volume fraction) of the slMFB, which connects with the GP, are also associated to hedonism and found a significant, albeit in an uncorrected level, positive association between the myelin volume fraction within the left slMFB and hedonism scores. This is the first study to elucidate the relationship between the importance people attach to the human value of hedonism and structural variation in reward-related subcortical brain regions.

Does Spontaneous Favorability to Power (vs. Universalism) Values Predict Spontaneous Prejudice and Discrimination?

OBJECTIVE: We conducted five studies testing whether an implicit measure of favorability toward power over universalism values predicts spontaneous prejudice and discrimination. METHOD: Studies 1 (N = 192) and 2 (N = 86) examined correlations between spontaneous favorability toward power (vs. universalism) values, achievement (vs. benevolence) values, and a spontaneous measure of prejudice toward ethnic minorities. Study 3 (N = 159) tested whether conditioning participants to associate power values with positive adjectives and universalism values with negative adjectives (or inversely) affects spontaneous prejudice. Study 4 (N = 95) tested whether decision bias toward female handball players could be predicted by spontaneous attitude toward power (vs. universalism) values. Study 5 (N = 123) examined correlations between spontaneous attitude toward power (vs. universalism) values, spontaneous importance toward power (vs. universalism) values, and spontaneous prejudice toward Black African people. RESULTS: Spontaneous positivity toward power (vs. universalism) values was associated with spontaneous negativity toward minorities and predicted gender bias in a decision task, whereas the explicit measures did not. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that the implicit assessment of evaluative responses attached to human values helps to model value-attitude-behavior relations.

Hard times and European youth. The effect of economic insecurity on human values, social attitudes and well-being.

While economic downturns have adverse effects on young people's life chances, empirical studies examining whether and to what extent human values, social attitudes and well-being indicators respond to sudden economic shocks are scarce. To assess the claim that human values are less affected by economic shocks than social attitudes and well-being, two distinct yet related studies based on the European Social Survey (ESS) are conducted. The first employs a fixed effects pseudo-panel analysis of the 2008-2014 ESS-waves to detect whether changes over time in the socio-demographic group's unemployment risk and national youth unemployment affect individual dispositions to varying degrees. The second study captures micro- and cross-national effects in the 2010 ESS cross-section. Unique for this set-up is that we can test whether the findings hold for over-time changes in youth unemployment within countries (pseudo-panel), as well as for cross-country differences in youth unemployment (multilevel). Both studies indicate that political trust, satisfaction with the economy and subjective well-being are lowered by economic risk and hardship, while social trust and self-rated health are less affected by changes in youth unemployment. Secondly, human values are immune to economic risk, underscoring that values transcend specific situations and are therefore resistant against sudden economic shocks.