Changes in Social Values in the United States during the Past Decade
研究了1976至1986年间美国社会价值观的变迁，发现总体稳定但存在若干显著变化，对营销和广告策略有重要启示。
Summary andConclusions It is widely accepted amongboth academics and practitionersthat values influence consumerbehavior. Values and productscan be viewed as opposite sidesof means-end chains (Gutman,1982). Consequently, shifts in so-cial values result in changes inconsumer behaviors. Thus, it iscritical for advertisers and mar-keters to keep track of shifts invalues of their target segments ifthey hope to deal effectively withthe resultant changes in be-havior. This article reports onshifts in social values in theUnited States from 1976 to 1986and discusses some of the impli-cations for marketing and adver-tising strategy.Most surveys examining trendsin social values have found con-siderable continuity in the valuesAmericans endorse (Yankelovich,1981). The results of this studyalso reveal relative stability in theimportance placed on differentvalues by Americans over thepast decade; however, this con-clusion must be qualified by sev-eral notable shifts. As Yankelo-vich points out:In American life continuity andfar-reaching change do co-existwith each other. So variegatedis American culture that an ob-server who wishes to highlightits continuity can easily do so;conversely, an observer whowishes to document thechanging nature of Americanlife can also have his way. Thesubtle question of judgement[sic] is always: Have impor-tant things remained the sameor have they changed?Our results lead us to concludethat certain important changes, interms of their effect on con-