Some of Our Values Get More Regard Than Others

Part II of a series Feb.  2, 2025

Our country is built on strong, enduring values that have molded and sustained us for two and a half centuries. That’s not to say, however, that we value them all the same.

Admittedly this is a comparison that sometimes pits one strongly accepted ideal versus another.  Nonetheless, we deem some values to be more important, and we’re more aligned on some than others.

These and other telling discoveries arise from Our Common Purpose’s study of American values, what about them unites and divides us, and what we might do about it.

This original work is both built upon and validates the concepts known as values pluralism, first put forward by the British scholar Isaiah Berlin way back in the 1950s, and goes on to show the unrecognized but considerable impact that values pluralism has on American society in general and political strife in particular.

The results are based in good part on a nationwide public opinion survey focusing on 25 key American values. The 2,500 participants in the study, who mirror the characteristics of the nationwide voting population, were asked in September by Survey USA to answer a lengthy set of questions using a sliding scale of -100 to +100.

The good news is that we generally hold our values in very high regard. The composite score of +59 is way up there on the scale of -100 to +100. None of the 25 tested values ended up on the negative side, meaning that even the least important is seen overall in a positive light.

But while some of the values have almost universal support, the verdict on