Psychological Science · 2017 · 519 citations · 34 references
Social SciencesAnthropologySociologyCultural ChangeCultureIndividual DifferencesIndividualismPopulation ChangeSocial ChangeIndividual IdentitySocioeconomic Environment
Individualism has risen over recent decades, but most evidence comes from a few highly developed nations. The study asks whether the world is becoming more individualist overall and seeks to understand why. The authors analyzed 51 years of data on individualist practices and values from 78 countries. Results show that individualism is increasing in most societies, yet substantial cultural differences persist, largely driven by socioeconomic development and, to a lesser extent, by pathogen prevalence and disaster frequency.
Individualism appears to have increased over the past several decades, yet most research documenting this shift has been limited to the study of a handful of highly developed countries. Is the world becoming more individualist as a whole? If so, why? To answer these questions, we examined 51 years of data on individualist practices and values across 78 countries. Our findings suggest that individualism is indeed rising in most of the societies we tested. Despite dramatic shifts toward greater individualism around the world, however, cultural differences remain sizable. Moreover, cultural differences are primarily linked to changes in socioeconomic development, and to a lesser extent to shifts in pathogen prevalence and disaster frequency.
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R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing
R Core Team · 2000 · 353K citations · Full text
Natural Sciences, Computer Science, Statistical Computing +10