This article summarises recent trends in national research on Jamaican societal values, patterns of interpersonal trust and intergroup fairness perceptions, using data from 2006 and 2007 Leadership and Governance surveys and the 2002 Cross-cultural Variations in Distributive Justice Perception survey. Several examples are given of ways in which the “psychocultural factors gap” in understanding and implementing development policies can be bridged by empirically measuring, in ongoing nationally representative survey instruments, some of the salient national values, perceptions and behavioural “habits of the heart” that have implications for Jamaican development and long-term policy design. This is illustrated using recent national surveys that incorporated measures gauging levels of trust, fairness and social value priorities.
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