Protected Values

Abstract

Protected values are those that resist trade-offs with other values, particularly economic values. We propose that such values arise from deontological rules concerning action. People are concerned about their participation in transactions rather than just with the consequences that result. This proposal implies that protected values, defined as those that display trade-off resistance, will also tend to display quantity insensitivity, agent relativity, and moral obligation. People will also tend to experience anger at the thought of making trade-offs, and to engage in denial of the need for trade-offs through wishful thinking. These five properties were correlated with tradeoff resistance (across different values, within subjects) in five studies in which subjects answered several questions about each of several values, or in which they indicated their willingness to pay to prevent some harmful action. These correlations were found even when the subjects could not tell the experimenters which values they were responding to, so they cannot be ascribed entirely to subjects' desire to express commitment. We discuss implications for value measurement and public policy.