The relationship between personal values and kindness: Insights from a latent profile analysis

Personal values are guiding principles of what people consider important in life, representing a core aspect of their identity. The well-known Schwartz's theory of human basic values identifies two higher-order value dimensions, namely conservation vs openness to change, and self-transcendence vs self-enhancement. Conservation and self-transcendence are self-focused values (i.e., they regulate how one relates socially to others), while openness to change and self-enhancement are personal-focused values (i.e., they regulate how one expresses personal interests). Extensive research has shown the key role of values in prosocial behavior. A core component of prosociality is kindness, which is generally defined as a positive tendency toward others. Comunian hypothesized that kindness follows different developmental stages (i.e., egocentric, social/normative, extrinsically motivated, and authentic) based on Kohlberg's theory of moral judgment. Despite the importance of both values and kindness in supporting prosociality, to date, no study has investigated the relationship between these two relevant variables. Building upon this gap, this study aims to investigate this relationship by adopting a person-centered approach. Specifically, we developed profiles based on value dimensions (i.e., conservation, self-transcendence, openness to change, and self-enhancement) and examined possible differences between them in kindness stages (i.e., egocentric, social/normative, extrinsically motivated, and authentic). To do this, we conducted a Latent Profile Analysis on 492 Italian participants (50.4% women, Mage = 37.57, SD = 17.44), who completed a self-report questionnaire. Three distinct value profiles emerged, one more focused on personal values (N= 66), the second on social values (N= 288), and the last one characterized by a balance between social and personal values (N= 138). We found a series of significant differences in kindness among the three value profiles, with the “personal value profile” having the highest level of egocentric kindness and the “balanced value profile” reporting higher levels in all the other stages of kindness.