70 lines
2.2 KiB
Markdown
70 lines
2.2 KiB
Markdown
---
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id:
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aliases: []
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title: Personal Values
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tags:
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- topic/individualism
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- type/encyclopedia-entry
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dg-publish: true
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---
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# Personal Values
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Personal values are subjective preferences for behavior
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that affect one's decisions in ways that an objective analysis could not predict.
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> [!example]
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> People are more likely to return a wallet
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> with more cash than less.
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Personal values are the difference between one's normative and descriptive [[utility]].
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Maintaining strong personal values aids decision-making
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by allowing one to trivialize problems
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that may be overwhelmingly complex when analyzed objectively.
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For example:
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For an unbiased individual,
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to calculate the utility of a second bowl of ice cream---
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to determine its relative benefit compared to its harm---
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requires a thorough understanding and accurate quantization of their
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* recent and future physical activity
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* fitness goals
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* preference for ice cream relative to other desert options
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* natural tendency to form unhealthy habits
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among many other factors.
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For an individual who strongly values their health and physical fitness,
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the knowledge that they would be acting in violation of those values
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skews the calculation so far to the negative
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that internal debate is unnecessary.
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Frequently, individuals are capable of effectively rationalizing their values
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(it's not difficult to imagine that, all variables considered,
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the objective utility of the additional ice cream is negative for most people).
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In this way they are behavioral [[heuristics]]:
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subjective utility
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***
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_Having_ a value, simply acknowledging that some behavior is good,
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requires no effort, and has no perceivable effect on the person.
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Everyone _has_ dozens of values.
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_Maintaining_ a value means acting according to it so often
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that doing so is instinctive.
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***
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Personal values, as commonly described,
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tend towards benevolence (charity, family)
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or at least individual good[^1] (health, physical fitness),
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but like habits, people maintain bad values as often or more.
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[^1]: "good" is a **societal** value,
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a common value that individuals are expected to maintain.
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Angry, wasteful, and unhygienic people
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maintain bad values that cause them to act the way they do,
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contrary to their own objective interest.
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