Scientific Definition
Each value system (Beige through Green) believes itself to be the only valid one and dismisses the others.
Plain-English Definition
Each value system (Beige through Green) believes itself to be the only valid one and dismisses the others.
Feynman Explanation
First-tier debates feel existential because, to first-tier minds, they are.
Core Principle
Each value system (Beige through Green) believes itself to be the only valid one and dismisses the others.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Each value system (Beige through Green) believes itself to be the only valid one and dismisses the others.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Why values-based culture wars inside organizations rarely get resolved by arguing the values.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
First-tier debates feel existential because, to first-tier minds, they are.
Examples
- Spiral Dynamics' first six vMemes (Beige, Purple, Red, Blue, Orange, Green).
- Why values-based culture wars inside organizations rarely get resolved by arguing the values.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Reframe at the meta-level. Use Yellow/Turquoise (second-tier) facilitators when the conflict is between first-tier vMemes.
Measurement Approaches
Pending editorial review.
Evidence
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
- Reframe at the meta-level. Use Yellow/Turquoise (second-tier) facilitators when the conflict is between first-tier vMemes.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Interactive Mini Network
Click any neighbor to re-center the graph and follow the threads of connection.
Knowledge Graph Neighbors
Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.
Yellow and Turquoise vMemes — first systems that recognize the legitimacy of all earlier value systems.
Cultures vary in how strictly norms are enforced and deviance punished.
The relative weight a culture gives to individual goals vs. group cohesion.
The combination of historical, social, and existential pressures that activates the next vMeme.
How much hierarchical inequality a culture accepts as normal.
A developmental model of human value systems (vMemes) emerging in response to life conditions.
Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic — a tiny, atypical psychological sample.
Imagining what could have happened instead of what did.
Reasoning from foundational truths rather than from analogy or convention.
Players reason a fixed number of steps ahead about what others will do — and rarely beyond level 2 or 3.
Expecting change to happen at a constant rate.
Reason in distributions, not in points.