What Is Values Coding?
Values coding is a qualitative coding method that identifies and labels the values, attitudes, and beliefs expressed or implied by participants in qualitative data. A value is an enduring belief about what's important (fairness, efficiency, family). An attitude is an evaluative stance toward something specific ("I think loyalty programs are manipulative"). A belief is a conviction about how the world works ("You get what you pay for"). Together, these three constructs form the worldview that shapes how people interpret experiences and make decisions. Values coding surfaces that worldview from interview transcripts, open-ended responses, focus group discussions, and other qualitative data.
Why Values Coding Matters
People don't explain their values unprompted, they express them indirectly through what they prioritize, how they judge situations, and what they take for granted. Values coding makes these implicit drivers visible. In market research, understanding that a customer segment values control over convenience changes your entire messaging strategy. In organizational research, identifying shared and conflicting values across stakeholder groups explains friction that process mapping alone can't. Values are the deep layer beneath attitudes and behaviors.
How Values Coding Works
The Three Constructs
Values (V): Core principles that guide behavior across contexts. They're relatively stable and often culturally shaped. Examples: transparency, autonomy, security, innovation, tradition.
Attitudes (A): Evaluative orientations toward specific objects, people, or situations. They're more context-dependent than values. Examples: skeptical of automation, positive toward premium pricing, distrustful of corporate messaging.
Beliefs (B): Propositions participants hold to be true, whether or not evidence supports them. Examples: "organic food is healthier," "big companies don't care about small customers," "you need to hustle to succeed."
The Coding Process
Step 1: Identify value-laden segments. As you read through data, flag passages where participants express judgments, priorities, assumptions, or convictions. These often appear as:
- Should/shouldn't statements: "Companies should be upfront about pricing."
- Evaluative language: "That's the right way to do it." "It just feels wrong."
- Priority statements: "What matters most to me is..."
- Assumption statements: "Everyone knows that..." "That's just how it works."
Step 2: Classify as V, A, or B. Apply the appropriate prefix to each code:
- V: transparency (enduring principle)
- A: distrustful of subscription models (evaluative stance toward specific object)
- B: you get what you pay for (conviction about reality)
Step 3: Look for alignment and conflict. Within a single participant, values, attitudes, and beliefs may align (value health + believe organic is healthier + positive attitude toward farmers' markets) or conflict (value frugality + believe premium quality matters + ambivalent attitude toward luxury brands). These tensions are analytically rich.
Step 4: Compare across participants. Map value patterns across your sample. Which values are widely shared? Where do segments diverge? Do participants who share certain values also share behavioral patterns?
Combining with Other Methods
Values coding pairs well with:
- Emotion coding: emotions often signal activated values. Anger at a hidden fee signals a value of transparency. Relief at a simple return process signals a value of ease.
- Process coding: understanding the actions participants take in light of their values explains why different people respond differently to the same situation.
- In vivo coding: participants' own language often captures values more powerfully than researcher labels.
Moving to Second-Cycle Coding
During pattern coding or focused coding, consolidate individual value codes into value clusters or value orientations. A cluster of codes like V: transparency, V: honesty, V: directness, B: hidden agendas are everywhere might consolidate into a value orientation of "demanding authenticity." These higher-order constructs become the building blocks of persona development, segmentation frameworks, or theoretical models.
When to Use Values Coding
- Brand and positioning research: understanding which values resonate with target audiences and how your brand aligns (or misaligns) with them.
- Segmentation studies: values-based segmentation often predicts behavior more reliably than demographics.
- Cultural and cross-cultural research: comparing value systems across groups, communities, or markets.
- Organizational research: identifying espoused vs. Enacted values within companies, teams, or leadership groups.
- Political and social research: understanding the value foundations of public opinion and policy preferences.
Common Mistakes
- Confusing values with preferences. "I prefer blue packaging" is a preference, not a value. "I believe companies should use sustainable materials" reflects a value (environmental responsibility). Values are deeper and more stable than surface-level likes and dislikes.
- Coding only explicit statements. Values are often implicit. A participant who describes spending three hours researching before any purchase may never say "I value thoroughness," but the behavior reveals the value. Look for values expressed through actions and priorities, not just declarations.
- Treating values as fixed. While values are relatively stable, they can shift in response to life events, and they're often context-dependent in how they're expressed. The same person might value efficiency at work and patience at home. Code values with contextual awareness.
Quali-Fi Support
Quali-Fi's AI-powered qualitative analysis identifies evaluative language, conviction statements, and priority markers across focus group transcripts, discussion boards, and open-ended survey responses. The thematic coding tools support V/A/B classification, making it practical to build values-based segment profiles and track how values influence attitudes and behaviors across your research.
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FAQs
How is values coding different from thematic analysis?
Thematic analysis identifies patterns across data regardless of type. Values coding specifically targets values, attitudes, and beliefs, a subset of what thematic analysis might find. You can use values coding within a thematic analysis framework, or as a standalone first-cycle method that feeds into other second-cycle approaches.
Can values be coded from survey data?
Yes, particularly from open-ended responses. When respondents explain why they rated something a certain way, their reasoning often reveals underlying values. Closed-ended value scales (like Schwartz's values survey) measure values quantitatively, but qualitative values coding captures how values operate in context, something scales miss.
What's the relationship between values and behavior?
Values influence behavior, but the relationship isn't deterministic. People don't always act in accordance with their stated values, social pressure, resource constraints, and competing values all intervene. Values coding captures the aspirational and normative dimensions of experience, which complement behavioral observation.