How to Discover Your Core Values — and Why It Matters

Values — the invisible compass behind every decision

When did you last make an important life decision: changing jobs, ending or starting a relationship, choosing where to live? What really drove it? Logic? Money? Feelings?

Psychologists Jonathan Haidt and Jesse Graham argue that beneath every decision lie moral foundations: deeply rooted, often unconscious values that define what we consider good, fair and right.

Discovering your life values is not an exercise for philosophers. It is a practical tool that helps you make consistent decisions, avoid inner conflicts and build a life that truly satisfies you.

Haidt's Moral Foundations Theory

Haidt and Graham proposed a model of six moral foundations, which emerged through evolution as responses to recurring challenges of social life:

1. Care/Harm

A foundation built on empathy and protecting the vulnerable. People who score high on this dimension are sensitive to suffering, value caring and oppose cruelty.

2. Fairness/Cheating

An emphasis on reciprocity, equal rules for everyone and honesty in relationships. "Everyone should get what they deserve."

3. Loyalty/Betrayal

The value of the group, solidarity and sacrifice for the community. "I stand by my people, even when it's hard."

4. Authority/Subversion

Respect for hierarchy, tradition and social order. "There are rules that must be followed."

5. Sanctity/Degradation

The belief that certain things, bodies or symbols are sacred and should not be profaned.

6. Liberty/Oppression

Opposition to domination and tyranny; valuing autonomy and the right to self-determination.

Why do values differ so much between people?

Haidt showed that differences in moral foundations explain many political and cultural disputes, far better than rational arguments do. Conservatives and liberals do not so much have different arguments; they have different fundamental moral intuitions.

Importantly, no value profile is "better" or "worse". Each set of foundations was an adaptive response to specific environmental and social challenges.

How do values shape your life?

At work

If you value fairness, working at a company with an opaque promotion system will frustrate you, even if you are well paid. If you value loyalty, betrayal by your employer hurts disproportionately.

In relationships

Value conflicts are the deepest conflicts between people. A couple where one person values freedom and autonomy and the other values tradition and authority will have to consciously negotiate many everyday decisions.

In life choices

Consistency between your values and your everyday life correlates with psychological wellbeing (Schwartz, 2012). When we live against our own values, even if on the outside "everything is fine", we feel chronic dissatisfaction.

How to discover your values?

Three practical exercises:

1. The peak experiences method: Recall 5 moments when you felt the greatest satisfaction and meaning. What did they have in common?
2. The anger method: What really irritates you in other people's behaviour? Anger at injustice suggests that fairness is one of your values.
3. A values test: Psychometric tools such as the Moral Foundations Questionnaire give you structured insight into what you truly value.

Take the free Moral Foundations Test at PsychoProfil.pl: discover which of the five foundations it measures shape your decisions and values.