The emerging culture: nearly one in four American adults lives by a new set of values, according to this decade-long study - includes related article on using values to study customers

American Demographics, Feb, 1997 by Paul H. Ray

A major change has been growing in American culture. It is a comprehensive shift in values, world views, and ways of life. It appeals to nearly one-fourth of American adults, or 44 million persons. People who follow this new path are on the leading edge of several kinds of cultural change. They are interested in new kinds of products and services, and they often respond to advertising and marketing in unexpected ways.

This emerging group has been labeled Cultural Creatives by American LIVES of San Francisco. In numerous surveys and focus groups, we have seen that Americans live in three different worlds of meaning and valuing. Each world creates distinctive contexts for a wide array of consumer purchases, political convictions, and civic behavior. And within each world are class divisions that create different subgroups that share the same broader views.

The first world view is Traditionalism. It is the belief system for about 29 percent of Americans (56 million adults) who might also be called Heartlanders. In America, traditionalism often takes the form of country folks rebelling against big-city slickers. Heartlanders believe in a nostalgic image of small towns and strong churches that defines the Good Old American Ways. That image may owe as much to John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart movies as to any historical reality, but for them it is a powerful reminder of how things ought to be.

The second world view is Modernism. It holds sway over about 47 percent of Americans, or 88 million adults. Modernism emerged 450 years ago as the governing world view of the urban merchant classes and other creators of the modern economy. It defines modern politicians, military leaders, scientists, and intellectuals. Modernists place high value on personal success, consumerism, materialism, and technological rationality. It's not too far off to say that Moderns see the world through the same filters as Time magazine.

The third and newest world view goes beyond Modernism. Its current adherents are the Cultural Creatives, who claim 24 percent of U.S. adults (44 million). Trans-Modernism began with esoteric spiritual movements such as 19th-century American Transcendentalism. It gained strength as Western intellectuals discovered the diversity and coherence of other religions and philosophies. It caught fire in the 1960s, as millions of young people joined "movements" for human potential, civil rights, peace, jobs, social justice, ecology, and equal rights for women.

Conservative commentators often believe that each of the social movements listed above exists in isolation and is important only to a few. But from women's issues to environmentalism, the emblematic values of the 1960s are being embraced by more and more Americans. Few in the media recognize it, but these ideas are coalescing into a new and coherent world view. When Cultural Creatives look at Modernism, the see an antique system that is noisily shaking itself to pieces.

Cultural Creatives may be disenchanted with the idea of "owning more stuff," but they put a strong emphasis on having new and unique experiences. On the deepest level, they are powerfully attuned to global issues and whole systems. Their icon is a photograph taken by an astronaut that shows the earth as a blue pearl hanging in black space.

WHERE ARE ALL THE GOOD MEN?

Cultural Creatives are slightly more likely than average to live on the West Coast, but they are found in all regions of the country. They are altruistic and often less concerned with success or making a lot of money, although most live comfortably with middle to upper-middle incomes. They are far more likely than Modernists or Heartlanders to have graduated from college. Their median age (42 years) is close to the national average for adults, but they tend to cluster around their mid-age point with relatively few elderly and young adults.

Demographics don't predict values. But Cultural Creatives do have one outstanding demographic characteristic: six in ten are women. In Cultural Creative circles, it's common to meet women asking, "Where are all the good men?" The answer is that in the middle- and upper-class neighborhoods where Creatives live, most men are Moderns.

Despite their numbers, Cultural Creatives tend to believe that few people share their values. This is partly because their views are rarely represented in the mainstream media, which is mostly owned and operated according to the Modern world view. Yet little of what they read gives them any evidence of their huge numbers. It's a paradox, but Creatives are likely to be information junkies. They follow the news all the time and read a great deal, although they watch a lot less TV than the average American.

Cognitive style is a key to understanding the Cultural Creatives. While they take in a lot of information from a variety of sources, Creatives are good at synthesizing it into a "big picture." Their style is to scan an information source efficiently, seize upon something they are interested in, and explore that topic in depth.