values
Definition
Values refers to abstract motivational goals that guide the evaluation and selection of behaviour, encompassing types such as security, benevolence, conformity, tradition, universalism, and achievement. These goals are widely endorsed across individuals, yet people disagree substantially about which concrete actions or events serve them in practice. This gap between abstract endorsement and applied meaning is captured by Value-Instantiating Beliefs, which measure whether a person perceives a specific event as benefiting or threatening each value type. In a survey of 973 Russian citizens conducted in August 2022, two distinct profiles of such beliefs emerged: one in which respondents saw the war in Ukraine as enhancing conservation values, and another in which they saw it as undermining them. The profile that construed the war as protective of security, conformity, and tradition predicted pro-war attitudes and intentions to support the war.
Sources: Ponizovskiy et al. (2026)
Related Terms
- collective action (1 shared article)
- authoritarianism (1 shared article)
- propaganda (1 shared article)
- Russia (1 shared article)
- Ukraine (1 shared article)
- value-instantiating beliefs (1 shared article)
Applications
Values and Propaganda
State media consumption was associated with seeing the war as beneficial for conformity and tradition and harmful for stimulation and achievement, while independent media consumption showed the reverse pattern. This relationship supports the view that propaganda does not merely expose audiences to messages but actively structures how events are interpreted in value-laden terms, offering motivational justifications for compliance with state-sanctioned action.
Sources: Ponizovskiy et al. (2026)
Values and War Support
Among the 973 Russian respondents, conservation-aligned construals of the war, particularly those linking it to security, conformity, and tradition, were positively associated with pro-war attitudes and intentions to participate in political action supporting the war. Construals tied to universalism, hedonism, and achievement-power were associated with less favourable views and, in the case of benevolence, with weak intentions to resist.
Sources: Ponizovskiy et al. (2026)
Values and Media Consumption
Trust and use of state media exceeded that of independent media in the Russian sample, though trust in both fell below the scale midpoint. Pro-state media consumption predicted seeing the war as positive for conformity and tradition, while independent media consumption predicted seeing it as negative for those same values and positive for stimulation and achievement.
Sources: Ponizovskiy et al. (2026)
