Worldviews, culture and norms

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About

A worldview is a set of beliefs and assumptions that people use to interpret the world around them and guide behavior within a group. Worldviews are often shared between people with similar experiences, creating a culture with shared values and practices and behaviors that become norms.

Relationship to health and equity

Worldviews, culture and norms influence the conditions that shape community health and well-being, determining what services are available in a community, such as a quality education, affordable housing and medical care that respects patients’ unique cultural beliefs and practices and healthy housing. Worldviews, culture and norms define who belongs in society and in what role, which can lead to positive and negative impacts. For example, the feminist liberation movement brought to light the perils of not having female representation in decision-making roles. White women benefited from new norms that freed them to choose to work rather than being restricted to the home, however women of color still did not have the choice not to work outside the home. Anti-LGBTQ+ movements put sexual and gender minorities in danger of violence.

Relationship to systems and structures

The impact of worldviews can be found recorded in society's formal, written rules, but many rules are unwritten. Strongly held ideas about what is normal and appropriate have often enabled deep harm and created persistent inequities in health. Unwritten rules kept many women restricted to the role of wife and mother and continue to devalue women’s health problems and concerns. A worldview that devalues some people for the sake of creating wealth for others led to legal institutionalization of human trafficking and slavery. Similar worldviews prioritized the practice of individuals owning land over indigenous norms of stewarding and living with the land. Today, beliefs about who is deserving impact safety net programs, like SNAP and Medicaid.

A single worldview or culture cannot capture the full complexity of human health and history, and stories told about groups of people by those in decision-making roles can limit or expand opportunities for choice. When worldviews shift it can change the culture and norms already in place. This shifting of worldviews and cultures is continual and expected. Recognizing worldviews and norms that create harm and reimagining fair and equitable rules for our society is a practice key to the work of promoting health and well-being for everyone.

Additional Reading

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