Cultural differences also influence the motivation to either stand out or fit in with the rest of the group. In one experiment, participants from American and Japanese cultures were asked to select a pen. The majority of pens were the same color, and a few pens had a unique color. Most American participants chose the uniquely-colored pen. The Japanese participants, on the other hand, were much more likely to choose the majority color, even though they preferred the unique color.
This may have been because, coming from a collectivistic culture, the Japanese participants instinctively valued interpersonal harmony above personal preference and thus chose the inoffensive behavior of leaving the unique pens for others who might want them.
Research shows that collectivistic cultures are more accepting of socially reticent and withdrawn behaviors. In one study, people in these cultures displayed higher levels of social anxiety in comparison to those from individualistic cultures.
However, it may not be collectivist values alone that contributed to this. People in Latin American collectivist countries, for example, displayed lower levels of social anxiety than did people in East Asian collectivist countries. This may be due to an emphasis on group harmony and a higher value on qualities such as sociability—factors that may help decrease social anxiety—in Latin American cultures.
People in collectivist cultures tend to be more cautious about sharing their personal problems with their friends. Research shows some of the reasons why they hesitate to seek social support include concern about worrying others, disrupting the harmony of the group, losing face, and making the problem worse. Instead, people often seek out what is known as implicit social support. This involves spending time with supportive people without actually addressing the source of the stress.
Ever wonder what your personality type means? Sign up to find out more in our Healthy Mind newsletter. Lu C, Wan C. Cultural self-awareness as awareness of culture's influence on the self: Implications for cultural identification and well-being. Pers Soc Psychol Bull. Relational mobility and close relationships: A socioecological approach to explain cross-cultural differences. Pers Relations. Preferences versus strategies as explanations for culture-specific behavior.
Psychol Sci. Social anxiety and social norms in individualistic and collectivistic countries. Depress Anxiety. Pursuit of comfort and pursuit of harmony: culture, relationships, and social support seeking. Culture and social support. Am Psychol. Psychological Review, 98 , — CrossRef Google Scholar. Peng, K. Culture, dialectics, and reasoning about contradiction. American Psychologist, 54 , — Singelis, T. Horizontal and vertical dimensions of individualism and collectivism: A theoretical and measurement refinement.
Cross-Cultural Research, 29 , — Suh, E. The shifting basis of life satisfaction judgments across cultures: Emotions versus norms. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74 , — Talhelm, T. Large-scale psychological differences within China explained by rice versus wheat agriculture. Science, , — Triandis, H. Culture and social behavior. New York: McGraw-Hill. Individualism and collectivism. Westview: Boulder. But it can also mean that people treat out-groups negatively because they are too focused on the priorities of their own group.
Other people criticize the fact that we have too often differentiated countries solely based on collectivism and individualism and ignored other important differences. Cultures vary in their gender-role differentiation, power-distance the relationship between higher ranking and lower-ranking individuals , and the degree of uncertainty avoidance avoiding decisions whose outcomes are unknown, called the ambiguity effect.
As COVID began to take its hold on the world, we saw very different responses and outcomes unfold globally. Some regions seemed to be able to control the spread, while other countries failed to enforce restrictions to prevent cases from rising. Jackson G. English, professor of International Studies University in Shanghai, theorized that the reason behind the vast regional differences of pandemic responses could be explained by the difference between individualistic and collectivist cultures.
Lu, Jin and English believed that individuals from collectivist cultures, which emphasize the overall wellbeing of the society, were more likely to wear masks in the early stages of COVID They confirmed their hypothesis after examining individuals from 29 different countries that found that mask usage was much higher in collectivist cultures.
They also analyzed data from 50 different U. It is not just that countries respond differently to crises, but the collectivist nature of a culture that determined whether individuals would forego individual comfort for the good of society.
The difference in mindset helps to explain why China, a collectivist culture, was able to quickly stop the spread through drastic precautions and safety measures that individuals complied with. Alternatively, the U.
Unfortunately, in the case of the pandemic, the stronghold of freedom may have been the U. This behavior, however, has come at a grave cost for the collective. Each individual is protected as long as many others in the community wear masks. If a majority choose not to wear a mask, then you may not be protected even if you wear a mask. Unfortunately, again and again, many Americans prioritized their personal convenience or preference while ignoring the collective consequences of doing so.
Research conducted at the University of Kent similarly found that people who adopt a collectivist mindset were more likely to comply with COVID guidelines, including hygiene practices and social distancing. Collectivism impacts how willing people are to partake in activism or enact social change.
Climate change is a daunting reality of the modern-day, yet many people fail to take the necessary steps to change their behavior to reduce carbon emissions and help save the planet.
One theory is that people do not believe that their behavior directly contributes to climate change. They believe if they behave in climate-friendly ways, there will be little to no effect. This line of thinking shows that people believe their individual behavior is separate from wider group behavior, which is akin to individualistic thinking.
Chinese psychologist Peng Xiang and his colleagues conducted a study to test whether individualistic and collectivist attitudes could predict how much individuals were willing to partake in climate-friendly behavior, based on previous research that showed that cultural orientation was a factor in attitudinal response to climate change.
Xiang hypothesized that since individualism is connected to an attitude of the independent self, people with individualistic orientation are less likely to believe their actions will impact the climate and therefore are more prone to climate inaction. By surveying almost undergraduate students, Xiang and his team found that their hypothesis was correct. Individuals with an individualistic orientation more often reported that climate change was intractable. A previous study that Xiang conducted showed that when people believe climate change is intractable, they are less likely to engage in climate-friendly behavior.
Thus, Xiang concluded that collectivism positively affects the likelihood of climate-friendly behavior, while individualism negatively impacts it. We examine how people feel like their freedom is threatened when they are being pushed to get a vaccine, how individuals from collectivist cultures find it easier to follow government-imposed rules because they are used to it, as well as other reasons why people hesitate to listen to experts.
While we might believe that our own personality or characteristics are the biggest driver of our behavior, we are very influenced by the culture we come from.
From our culture, we learn a set of concepts and values that guide us in life and can influence our thinking patterns. In this article, our contributor Art Markman, explores how people from collectivist and individualistic cultures tend to have very different working styles. People from individualistic cultures tend to dissect problems into their specific parts, while people from collectivist cultures take a bigger picture approach to solving problems.
Theory, meet practice TDL is an applied research consultancy.
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