Instantiation of Human Values in Image Generation

Text-to-image (T2I) models are increasingly embedded in everyday visual culture, yet little is known about how they translate abstract human values into visual scenes. We address this gap by introducing a framework, grounded in Schwartz’s theory of basic human values, for studying value instantiation: the process by which ideals such as success, care, or freedom are visually realized. Using person-centered prompts from 70 positive and negative value items, we generate 28,000 images across four state-of-the-art T2I models. We identify visual prototypes, recurring combinations of subjects, actions, and settings, and use them to quantify how narrowly models instantiate these values and how this breadth compares with human descriptions of the same items. We then map these prototypes onto a taxonomy of social configurations spanning setting, sociality, mode of engagement, and social register, revealing what is systematically foregrounded or omitted. Our results show that T2I models produce far more concentrated representations than humans do when describing the same values. They default to a hyper-individualistic, adult-centric worldview, reproducing value-specific associations, such as achievement tied to formal institutional settings or hedonism rendered as affluent consumption, while marginalizing everyday labor, relational care, and non-adult perspectives. As a proof of concept, we show that these structural gaps can guide a steering method that diversifies outputs without modifying the original prompt.