Does the mere scarcity of essential goods lead people to value power and performance highly? Or do economic institutions create a culture of competition that prioritizes power and performance values? What role does individual positioning within social stratification play? These are the questions that this study, using data from the European Social Surveys, seeks to address. Empirically, it is shown that the lower the socio-economic development of societies, the higher the priority of power and performance values among the population. A reverse effect can be observed for individual positioning in social stratification. The higher the position in social stratification, the greater the individual priority on power and performance values. These opposing findings seem to emerge.