Core values of a culture may refer to values endorsed by most members of the culture or to values members of the culture generally believe to be widely shared in the culture. The authors propose an intersubjective consensus approach to identifying core cultural values based on the latter definition. In three studies, they illustrated the utility of the intersubjective consensus approach for identifying the cultural values that differentiate two or more nested cultural groups. They showed that endorsement of these values was related to the relative strength of identification with these cultural groups. The findings from the present research have important implications for social identity theories and acculturation research.
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