Three Value Clumps

I have long posted on studies that try to make sense of how human values differ, and how they have changed over time. A new paper in Social Science Quarterly tries to compare four different proposed values models, by modeling the correlation network structure of the variables they see as central. This diagram shows their key result: three clumps of 2-4 named clusters, each which has 3-10 correlated variables:

Alas that paper doesn’t give names for the particular variables, and some of the clump names seem overly opaque. But what I can see is still interesting. The lower right clump (called “virtuous agency”) matters most to modern elites, while the middle clump (called “power and social order”) mattered more in the farming era. Did the upper right clump (called “hierarchical individualism”) matter most to foragers, and also matter more now due to a toward-forager modern trend?

I’ve suggested that many modern differences are due to moderns seeing themselves as higher status, due to their higher wealth. If so, that virtuous agency would also have mattered more to farming era elites, while the power and social order clump should matter more to non-elites today.