Should race/ethnicity be a consideration for university admissions? Should school
prayer be allowed? Should corporations be required to provide insurance that includes
contraception to their employees? Should crosses be allowed in public spaces? Your
opinion about a moral issue, a question of ethics, a proposed course of action, or what
constitutes proper behavior in a particular context is strongly influenced by cultural
values, and your values can often conflict with those held by individuals of other cul-
tures. The ability to recognize, prepare for, and manage a conflict of cultural values
plays a central role in successful intercultural communication exchanges. To enhance
your intercultural skills, this chapter is designed to expand awareness of the role of cul-
tural values in your life and demonstrate how those values can vary across cultures. To
accomplish this, we will explore (1) how culture shapes perception, (2) the role
of beliefs in forming cultural values, (3) how culture inculcates a set of values, and
(4) how values differ across cultures. Considerable time will be devoted to examining
different cultural value patterns (or dimen-
sions), how those patterns influence commu-
nication, and their impact on intercultural
communication. A final section will explain
theimportanceofdevelopinganawareness
of cultural values.REMEMBER THIS
Learning the main values of a culture is essential for successful
intercultural communication exchanges.Since much of
perception is highly
subjective and heavily
affected by culture, it
is not surprising that
many of the meanings
we apply to stimuli,
even those related to
food tastes, are
influenced by culture.© S. David ZuckermanCultural Values: Road Maps for Behavior 199Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).