Be Satisfied espousers are most likely to be found in the Maslow Group Settler and are among the most resistant to change of any grouping within the British population.

Be Satisfied is a deeper concept for them than a more simple and obvious admonition to ‘not be greedy’. Be Satisfied means maintain the status quo, because outside all is chaos. All change is bad because it’s ‘the unknown’ – and anything unknown can only be regarded with deep suspicion. Be Satisfied espousers are those who oppose change because ‘we’ve always done it that way’. The way things are is safe and secure and safety and security must be maintained at all costs.

Be Satisfied espousers won’t be found examining their behaviour or motivations – they don’t believe there’s much to be gained by living inside their own heads as you’ve ‘just got to get on with it’. They don’t believe they could contribute to a debate in any case. There are ‘rules’ – whose formulation is lost in the mists of time - that tell you what to do, and people in positions of authority to make sure everyone sticks to ‘proper’ ways of behaving. They are very clear about what is ‘not nice’ – anything new and ‘out there’ or anything that draws attention. They are both disapproving of and fearful of young people: they don’t have ‘manners’, they make a lot of noise – and ‘I was brought up to respect my elders and betters’.

Within their own world, narrow as it may seem to some, they are truly content – even complacent. They know who they are and where they belong in the great scheme of things – following the rules, behaving properly and deferring to those who ‘know better’. They see no reason for change so will not adopt it until it becomes ‘normal’, what everyone does. They will soldier on as flu turns into pneumonia because they ‘don’t want to bother the doctor’. If this sounds remarkably like a pen portrait of the ‘typical grandparent’ that’s unsurprising as this Attribute significantly over-indexes among those over 55 – and even more so in those over 65.

Be Satisfied espousers are recognisable from every Sunday afternoon 1950s war film – they exemplify the ‘stiff upper lip’, ‘just got to get on with it’, ‘for God and country’ ethos exemplified in propaganda vehicles designed to maintain and boost the national morale at a time of crisis. Be Satisfied espousers don’t go on holiday abroad as they ‘saw enough of abroad during the war’.

If you also detect a Victorian feel to this Attribute description you’d be right. Be Satisfied espousers exemplify the Victorian hymn:-

The rich man in his castle
The poor man at his gate
God made them high and lowly
And ordered their estate

Be Satisfied is one of those Attributes that is particularly interesting to track over time. Espoused by an aging population group and with over 75% support from socio-economic classes C1, C2 and DE it defined a quality of a ‘working class’ that in many ways no longer exists in the 21st century but in which both the trades union movement and ‘old Labour’ are rooted.

As individuals and cultures change quicker than political parties it would seem that an appeal to the Be Satisfied Attribute would not provide a robust platform for repositioning either the Labour Party or even the “working class” Tory voter of the late 20th Century.