Understanding Human Values

This insightful book presents an overview of contemporary research on human values and outlines how a better understanding of them is important for shaping collective futures. Ronald Fischer engages with a re-evaluation of values in an era of generative AI, providing the broadest and most comprehensive assessment of the field to date.Fischer proposes that values are central to the majority of human activities, such as employment choices, health decisions, and whether to recycle or what candidate to vote for. Chapters examine how values can be both personal and cultural, integrating key theories and measures to assess how they differ across cultures and how these cognitive processes work in the brain. Drawing on interdisciplinary value theories, the book argues that the exploration of human values is not merely an intellectual pursuit, but a foundational aspect that informs decision-making, societal structures and the overall well-being of individuals and communities.Understanding Human Values is a pivotal resource for scholars and students of social and personality psychology, cultural psychology and sociology. Clinical psychologists and practitioners seeking to broaden their understanding of value-based decision-making will also benefit from its novel insights.