Applying Personal Values to Unveil Motivations Underlying Behaviors: Meta-Analysis of Values’ Relations with Prosocial and Antisocial Behavior as a Case-study

Abstract

Why do individuals behave the way they do? This paper presents a theoretical framework aimed at enriching and elucidating our comprehension of human behaviors. We propose that a systematic examination of the dynamic structure of values that drive behavior can yield crucial insights into the nature of those behaviors. In this work, we review the stream of research applying motivation to understand behavior. Next, we provide a comprehensive definition of values, focusing on eight principles enabling values to be an especially useful motivational vehicle to shed light on human behavior. Subsequently, we illustrate this approach through a case study involving a meta-analysis that explores the values associated with both prosocial and antisocial behaviors. The meta-analysis elucidates both the commonalities and distinctions between these social behaviors by scrutinizing their underlying motivational patterns. Finally, we delve into the implications of this process of analyzing behaviors by their relation to values