The ten values, and why they form a circle
Shalom Schwartz proposed a model of ten basic values in 1992, built and then checked across dozens of countries and languages. His finding is not the list but the structure: the values arrange themselves in a circle, and their position describes their relationships.
| Value | What it pursues |
|---|---|
| Self-direction | thinking and acting freely, choosing for oneself |
| Stimulation | novelty, challenge, intensity |
| Hedonism | pleasure, sensory satisfaction |
| Achievement | success demonstrated through competence |
| Power | status, control of resources and people |
| Security | safety, stability, order |
| Conformity | restraint, meeting expectations |
| Tradition | respect for custom and inheritance |
| Benevolence | the wellbeing of those close to you |
| Universalism | the wellbeing of all, and of nature |
Two neighbouring values support each other: pursuing power and pursuing achievement call for compatible behaviour. Two opposite values contradict each other in action: you do not maximise security and stimulation at once, nor power and universalism. This is not about moral consistency but about resources and concrete trade-offs.
The two major axes
The circle reduces to two oppositions.
Openness to change against conservation. Self-direction and stimulation on one side, security, conformity and tradition on the other. This is the axis deciding whether a new project attracts or worries you first.
Self-enhancement against self-transcendence. Power and achievement on one side, benevolence and universalism on the other. This is the axis deciding whose benefit an effort serves.
Those two axes often explain a disagreement that seemed to be about facts: two people ranking security and stimulation differently are not discussing the same problem when they talk about a reorganisation.
Why a value profile is read as a ranking
Value questionnaires produce scores that are almost all positive. Very few people report being indifferent to benevolence. Read as they are, these scores make it look as though everyone cares about everything, and distinguish nothing.
The information sits in the order. That is why a value profile is centred on the person’s own average: each value is placed relative to your other values, which brings out the ranking raw scores flatten.
The practical consequence matters for reading yours: a value shown below your average is not one you reject. It is one that gives way when it collides with another.
What Noetly measures
The ten values are one layer of the profile, fed by the same conversation as the traits and projected onto Schwartz’s circle. Each axis carries its margin of error, and the layer only appears once the measurement is precise enough.
Values are read with the rest. High conscientiousness says you keep your commitments; your value ranking says to whom, and in the name of what. It is also the most useful layer for understanding a lasting disagreement with someone, in a couple as at work, which the page on compatibility goes into.