A new study in the Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy sought to investigate the relationship between sexual values and sexual incongruence as well as the effects of religiousness on this relationship. The findings indicate that religiousness predicts sexual incongruence, but not more than conservative sexual values, which demonstrated the most substantial relationship. ...
Values and behaviors are different, but I struggle with the idea of people's self-declared values when they end up being unrelated to their behaviors. Values drive behaviors, within a set of material boundaries. The alcoholic who wants to b sober is struggling with a complex dependency that makes it very difficult for them to live their values in a very real and material way. That's where this sort of data becomes useful, because it then becomes about how to close the gap between values and behavior. There are plenty of alcoholics who might agree that sobriety is generally good, but who don't actually care to practice it. I would argue that the former has a claim on sobriety as a value while the latter clearly only has an academic appreciation for it, but if you gave them both a survey and said "do you value sobriety?" they might give the same answer. Without being able to point to some material consequence of holding certain values, stated values are as meaningful as what hat you're wearing that day. It's still data, I just don't get how the data is useful.
Again, I'd point you back to the economic conception of value. I can value bread even though I don't know how to bake. In fact, I may value bread more highly precisely because I don't know how to bake.
I'd argue that there's another measure of value, and that's in how inebriated people are treated.
If I'm openly hostile towards other people who've had to much to drink, that's as much a reflection of my values as my own behaviors. If, for instance, I endorse a return to Prohibition or if I believe a coworker who drinks on the job should be fired (or arrested), then I am expressing a value independent of my consumption habits. Using "drunk" or "lush" as a slur, accusing people of being drunk when they make mistakes or disagree with me, etc, etc. All signals that I consider excess alcohol consumption a moral failing.
I agree that a simple survey answer "Is alcoholism Good / Bad / Neutral?" might not be the best method of evaluating merit. But you can definitely probe deeper, asking how someone might respond to the consumption and inebriated behaviors of a neighbor, friend, family member, or coworker, in order to establish morality.
Ah, yes, I see where you're getting at. I'm thinking about this in terms of "I have values as an individual, and here's how they relate to my behavior" but you're absolutely right that my values extend to how I perceive others, regardless of my own behavior. In that sense, it definitely matters what I say and how I feel about those values, even if I'm a hypocrite.
I've done a bit of survey design stuff over the years and I've found that asking people about their perception of others is a great way of getting to a more authentic answer about their own beliefs. It can then be used as a cross reference to what they say about themselves. Good addition.
Regardless, I acknowledge I'm being overly prescriptive in some ways here and there's a lot of nuance in this discussion. 'Values' are a complex issue, and more than anything I'm poking at whether this study is saying what it appears to be saying.