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From the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley

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Understand Values

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A hand holds a compass in the foreground of a wooden boardwalk curving through green marsh toward water.

How to Do It

If you’re trying to appeal to people with a different ideology, try to discover what values resonate with them—then present your argument in terms of how it supports those values, not in terms of your own values.

  1. First, it’s important to make sure the values or morals you believe others have aren’t based on your own assumptions or stereotypes. You can do this by asking questions like, “What are important values that you try to uphold in your life?” and “Who taught you those values, or what experiences formed those values?”

  2. Next, think about how those values might be the same or different from your own; you might discover that you have more in common than you initially thought. If they seem very different, then consider how those values might shape the issues you care about. You don’t need to agree with those values. The point of this exercise is to understand them.

 

By doing this you may find it easier to convey your opinions and make sure they are understood by the other person. Even if you fail to persuade them to your position, you’ll have gained something from speaking from a position of empathy rather than hostility.
 

When engaging with people who hold perspectives different from our own, it’s important to recognize that their beliefs are often rooted in deeply held values, such as loyalty or fairness. On college campuses, understanding what values lie at the core of other people’s beliefs—and framing discussions around those values—can make dialogue more constructive than if you present your beliefs and opinions solely in terms of the values that matter to you.

Research on the practice of “moral reframing” suggests that people are more open to ideas and new perspectives when those ideas are presented in terms of the moral values that matter to them, such as care, loyalty, fairness, and respect for authority. Yet on campus, values often go unspoken in campus debates, classroom discussions, and student interactions. When conversations become tense or polarized, shifting the focus from what someone believes to why they believe it can lead to more meaningful exchanges and deeper understanding.

  1. Start by asking open-ended questions to identify their underlying values, such as “What values guide your beliefs?” or “What experiences shaped those values?” 

  2. Reflect on how their values align with or differ from your own. The goal isn’t necessarily to agree with one another, but to understand what matters to them and how it informs their perspective. This has the added benefit of seeing people as holistic individuals beyond their partisan identity, in ways that may defy stereotypes.

 

This approach can also help you communicate your own views in ways that they find more understandable and compelling. A disagreement over campus speech policies, for instance, might stem from one person valuing fairness and another prioritizing care for those who are vulnerable. Recognizing and speaking to these values allows for more productive dialogue: Even if your argument doesn’t convince them, they will likely feel more respected if you make that argument in terms of the values that they hold dear.
 

The Practice on Campus

When he was a student at Tulane University, Justin Turpan brought students with different political leanings to his campus's BridgeUSA events, a national organization that promotes dialogue across political views. Students often resisted bridging conversations, but Turpan learned Republicans' and Democrats' perspectives well enough to speak to their values. At BridgeUSA events, Turpan and his peers opened potentially contentious discussions by asking students to explain not only what they believed but why. That simple framing surfaced the values behind each stance.

This practice of understanding values helped BridgeUSA participants realize they often believed different things for similar reasons. During a gun-control discussion at Tulane, for example, a Second Amendment absolutist and a student who supported banning firearm sales both grounded their positions in a shared goal: making their communities feel safe and secure. Naming those values helped students frame their perspectives in ways the other person could understand, which led to more positive, constructive conversations.

“This achieves a conversation focused on the nuances and implications of political beliefs, where one can actually visualize the reasons behind another’s stance, rather than just chalking it up to someone else being crazy or uneducated or immoral.”
—Justin Turpan, Chapter Development Lead, BridgeUSA

The Research

Studies the practice is based on.

From gulf to bridge: When do moral arguments facilitate political influence?

Feinberg, M., & Willer, R. (2015). Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41(12), 1665–1681.

Liberals and conservatives rely on different sets of moral foundations.

Graham, J., Haidt, J., & Nosek, B. (2009). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96(5), 1029–46.

Megastudy testing 25 treatments to reduce antidemocratic attitudes and partisan animosity.

Voelkel, J. G., Stagnaro, M. N., Chu, J. Y., Pink, S. L., Mernyk, J. S., Redekopp, C., ... & Willer, R. (2024).  Science, 386(6719), eadh4764.
 

Related Resources

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Connecting on Campus: Iliff School of Theology

Can we work together to build a better country if we don’t share the same religious values? In this short documentary, graduate students at Iliff School of Theology show us how to use curiosity and patience to find a path forward even when we disagree.

A group of theology students are tasked with imagining their ideal version of the United States and sharing the values that matter most to them. When two students discover that they strongly disagree with one another, the whole class gets involved and the conversation takes a surprising turn.

This episode is part of Connecting on Campus, a documentary series from the Greater Good Science Center that shows how students are practicing bridging differences in higher education.

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