Values (Openness facet)
A facet of Big Five Openness measuring willingness to question authority, tradition, and conventional values. High scorers are intellectually unorthodox; low scorers are traditionalists.
Values (in the Openness facet sense) is not about which values you hold but about your willingness to re-examine them. High scorers are comfortable questioning religious, political, social, and moral conventions inherited from upbringing. Low scorers find such questioning uncomfortable and prefer received wisdom.
This facet is the strongest Big Five predictor of political ideology (high Values correlates with liberalism; low Values with conservatism) — but the relationship is about openness to re-examination, not about specific positions. A person can be high on Values and arrive at traditional conclusions after thoughtful re-examination.
Values is also the facet most affected by formal education: each year of tertiary education raises average Values scores measurably, reflecting structured exposure to alternative frameworks.
Source: Costa & McCrae (1992). NEO-PI-R; Carney, Jost, Gosling & Potter (2008). The secret lives of liberals and conservatives. Political Psychology.
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