Every nation includes people who are more or less impulsive or more or less deliberate, preferring the familiar to the novel; the same is true for other characteristics such as adherence to traditional values, me-first, and reliance on self. These attitudes connect to a broad range of behaviors such as brand preferences, the adoption of new products, and leadership qualities.
VALS is a proprietary psychometric method that measures these and other predictive attitudes—in conjunction with behaviors and demographics—for developing countrywide typologies such as US VALS. The types within a country persist through decades, as work since the 1970s has verified.