value judgment

noun

1. an estimate, usually subjective, of the worth, quality, goodness, evil, etc., of something or someone.

value judgment

noun

1. a subjective assessment based on one's own code of values or that of one's class

value judgment

1. An assessment of a person, situation, or event. The term is often restricted to assessments that reveal the values of the person making the assessment rather than the objective realities of what is being assessed.

We often make value judgments without realizing that we are doing so. For example, a teacher who describes a student as “the best I've ever taught — very polite and obedient” is making a value judgment about the qualities (politeness and obedience) that make a student good.

Word History and Origins

Origin of value judgment¹

First recorded in 1895–1900

Example Sentences

The spirit of the Ojai festival need not be conveyed by a laundry list of composers and works or by value judgments.

From Los Angeles Times

What political scientists describe as affective/negative polarization describes how political disagreements are increasingly existential value judgments where “the other side” is not just wrong but evil.

From Salon

The team found that CAs make value judgments about certain identities -- such as gay and Muslim -- and can be encouraging of identities related to harmful ideologies, including Nazism.

From Science Daily

The very act of assigning a story is a value judgment.

From Salon

And in the early 20th century, we had the “eugenics boom” within the biomedical sciences, which placed value judgments on certain traits that were supposedly rooted in “scientific evidence.”

From Science Magazine