How do we learn values from others, helping shape a culture?

Researchers
Norberto Grzywacz, Hassan Aleem,
Yewon Rhee, Katie Mather, and Elena Gonzalez Molina

An important source of human values is social background.  Adjusting our values to those of both trusted experts and family and friends are often necessary to make us successful in life.  Our lab thus studies how people learn from the values of others and how this learning contributes to the formation of culture.  One surprising recent result is that the same value mechanisms that lead to social bonds can produce social polarization.