Pathogen prevalence predicts human cross-cultural variability in individualism/collectivism

TLDR

Pathogenic diseases shape human social behaviour, leading to cross‑cultural differences in cognition and behaviour that depend on local pathogen prevalence. The study investigates whether collectivist values, such as ethnocentrism and conformity, are more common in regions with historically higher pathogen prevalence compared to individualistic values. The authors hypothesize that collectivist behaviours inhibit pathogen spread, predicting higher collectivism in high‑pathogen regions. Analysis of epidemiological and cross‑national survey data shows that higher pathogen prevalence correlates strongly with collectivism and inversely with individualism, even after controlling for confounders, supporting the hypothesis that pathogens shape cultural values.

Abstract

Pathogenic diseases impose selection pressures on the social behaviour of host populations. In humans ( Homo sapiens ), many psychological phenomena appear to serve an antipathogen defence function. One broad implication is the existence of cross-cultural differences in human cognition and behaviour contingent upon the relative presence of pathogens in the local ecology. We focus specifically on one fundamental cultural variable: differences in individualistic versus collectivist values. We suggest that specific behavioural manifestations of collectivism (e.g. ethnocentrism, conformity) can inhibit the transmission of pathogens; and so we hypothesize that collectivism (compared with individualism) will more often characterize cultures in regions that have historically had higher prevalence of pathogens. Drawing on epidemiological data and the findings of worldwide cross-national surveys of individualism/collectivism, our results support this hypothesis: the regional prevalence of pathogens has a strong positive correlation with cultural indicators of collectivism and a strong negative correlation with individualism. The correlations remain significant even when controlling for potential confounding variables. These results help to explain the origin of a paradigmatic cross-cultural difference, and reveal previously undocumented consequences of pathogenic diseases on the variable nature of human societies.