Synergies From Cultural Values

Values play an important role in our lives. There are personal values and cultural values. Every culture has a set of values. A culture is set apart from others by the relative importance it puts on these universal values. The culture endorses the value system. Core values are passed on to the members of the culture. Cultures and value systems differ from one place to another. They have to be understood in the context of locality.

Parents, friends and teachers are the socialisation agents who are responsible for the enculturation of the core values by which a culture is defined. It involves the process of learning the beliefs and behaviours of one's own culture. When going into a different culture we have to learn their value systems and behaviours. Elements of value systems are shared by different cultures. They share beliefs on certain general principles but differ on important details.

Advocates of a certain set of values may actively seek out others who share the same beliefs so that overlapping networks provide information that supports their beliefs and create synergies that enable them to achieve together what they could not achieve alone.