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Individualism on the Rise

For at least three centuries, individualism has been on the rise in Western countries. But new research indicates that increasing individualism is a global phenomenon. A new study, published in the journal Psychological Science, is just the latest showing that increasing socioeconomic development is an especially strong factor behind increasingly individualistic practices and values in a country, over time.

Much of the research on rising individualism, as reflected in increasing narcissism and higher divorce rates has focused on the United States. However, the new findings show that this pattern also applies to other countries that are not Western or even industrialized. And, while there still seem to be cross-national differences in terms of individualism vs. collectivism, the data indicate that most countries are moving towards greater individualism.

Drawing from national census data and data collected for the World Values Survey, the researchers examined 51 years’ worth of data detailing individualist practices and values in a total of 78 countries.

In general, individualist cultures tend to conceive of people as self-directed and autonomous, and they tend to prioritize independence and uniqueness as cultural values. Collectivist cultures, on the other hand, tend to see people as connected with others and embedded in a broader social context. As such, they tend to emphasize interdependence, family relationships, and social conformity.

To measure individualistic practices across cultures, the researchers examined data on household size, divorce rates, and proportion of people living alone. To measure individualistic values, they examined data on the importance that people place on friends versus family, how important people believe it is to teach children to be independent, and the degree to which people prioritize self-expression as a national goal.

They also looked at data on specific sociological and environmental factors -- including the level of socioeconomic development, disaster frequency, incidence of infectious disease, and extreme temperatures in each country -- to determine whether those might account for any shifts in individualism over time.

Overall, the results showed a clear pattern: Both individualistic practices and values have increased across the globe. Specifically, statistical models indicated that individualism has increased by about 12% worldwide since 1960.

Only four countries -- Cameroon, Malawi, Malaysia, and Mali -- showed a substantial decrease in individualistic practices over the 51 years, while 34 out of 41 countries showed a notable increase. Meanwhile, only five countries -- Armenia, China, Croatia, Ukraine, and Uruguay -- showed a substantial decrease in individualistic values, with 39 out of 53 countries showing a substantial increase. While the data indicated an overarching trend toward greater individualism worldwide, the researchers noted that sizable differences between countries remained.

Various aspects of economic development corelated with these increases in individualism, particularly increases in the proportion of white-collar jobs, education levels, and household income.

Most of the countries that did not show an increase in individualist values were among the lowest in socioeconomic development across the time-period examined. This supports the conclusion that socioeconomic development is driving the rise in individualism.

China is a notable exception to this pattern. It showed a decrease in individualist values, despite the fact China has experienced dramatic economic growth. This may be due to China’s complex socioeconomic history. It’s likely that the Chinese Communist Party’s program of media saturation with pro-collectivist messages has more than offset the individualist influences that come with rising affluence and industrialization. This program was designed to pre-emptively defuse social conflict due to rising economic inequality.

The global trend toward individualism is particularly important because new research indicates that key aspects of individualism, including freedom and personal autonomy are more important to peoples well-being than money. A new study of international data published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, addressed the question: “What is more important for well-being, providing people with money or providing them with choices and autonomy?”

The research examined a sample of 420,599 people from 63 countries spanning nearly 40 years. It clearly demonstrated that providing individuals with more autonomy is important for reducing negative psychological symptoms, relatively independent of wealth.

It revealed a very consistent and robust finding that societal values of individualism were the best predictors of human well-being. Furthermore, when wealth alone was a significant predictor, this effect disappeared when individualism was entered. The bottom line, "Money leads to autonomy, but it does not independently add to well-being or happiness.”

Previous research has shown that higher income, greater individualism, human rights and social equality are all associated with higher well-being. However, the effect of money on happiness has been shown to plateau; that is, once people reach the point of being able to meet their basic needs, more money alone leads to marginal gains at best or even less well-being as people worry about "keeping up with the Joneses." These patterns were confirmed by the new study.
Overall, more autonomy and freedom as indexed by societal-level individualism are associated with greater well-being. But, the road to well-being is bumpy at times. For instance, in more traditional and collectivistic societies, increases in individualism can be associated with anxiety and lower well-being. In contrast, in more individualistic countries in Europe, North America, and Australia, greater individualism definitely leads to more well-being.

These increases in well-being with higher individualism, however, leveled off toward the extreme ends of individualism, indicating that too much autonomy may not be incrementally beneficial. For example, in some of the most individualistic societies (such as the United States), greater independence from family and loved ones appears to go together with increased levels of stress and “ill-being.” However, the predominant pattern across cultures and geographies indicates that individualism is associated with greater overall well-being.

Given this trend we offer following forecasts for your consideration.

First, global enterprises will price goods to exploit differences in the cues that consumers in individualistic and collectivist cultures take from product pricing. According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, less individualistic consumers are more likely to use the price of a product to infer its quality. So, they may represent a better prospective market for higher-priced brands, particularly when brands compete on the basis of quality. Although consumers around the world are responsive to deals and price-reductions, competing largely on the basis of lower price may be less effective for collectivistic markets, particularly when launching new brands or promoting brands whose prices are not well known.

Second. companies will also present items differently depending on whether they are marketing to people in a collectivist or an individualist culture. The researchers found that individualists are less affected than collectivists by the context within which products are placed. For example, when a low-fat cookie was grouped with cereal bars and rice cakes in the health food section, collectivists paid more attention to fat content than when the low-fat cookie was shelved taxonomically among all types of cookies. In contrast, individualists perceived the fat content uniformly across contexts. "Collectivists consider context information in their product categorization more than individualists," the authors write. "Individualists ignore the context and focus only on product features." The authors conclude: "Our findings fill important gaps in both self-construal and categorization research. An implication of the greater category of membership inclusiveness by individualists is that their stereotypes may be more malleable and less resistant to counter-stereotypical information."

Third, in terms of public policy, the rise of individualistic practices and values will mean that it will be increasingly important to gain genuine buy-in from people to achieve compliance with new policies. According to research published in the journal Psychological Science, the specific cultural values of a country may determine whether concern about environmental issues leads individuals to engage in environmentally friendly behaviors. The findings suggest that individual concern is more strongly associated with motivation to act in countries that espouse individualistic values, while social norms may be a stronger motivator in collectivistic societies. And,

Fourth, businesses seeking to maximize creativity will increasingly focus on recruiting personnel from a mix of collectivist and individualistic cultures. With the creative class on the rise, many businesses are trying to capitalize on imagination and innovation. But, according to research published in the Journal of Business Research, when it comes to creative juices, some societies have a faster flow than others. Thats because, as new research suggests, creativity is tied to culture. To maximize the productivity of their international teams, global firms need to understand important cultural differences between Western and Eastern mindsets. Brainstorming, a technique often used to generate novel ideas such as new product innovations, might not be equally effective across cultural settings. Even though individuals from collectivistic societies might be coming up with fewer creative ideas, the quality of those ideas tends to be just as good as or marginally better than those of their individualistic counterparts. Employers need to recognize that.

References
1. Psychological Science, July 18, 2017, Henri C. Santos, Michael E. W. Varnum, Igor Grossmann, Global Increases in Individualism.

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797617700622?journalCode=pssa

2. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Ronald Fischer, Diana Boer. What is more important for national well-being: Money or autonomy? A meta-analysis of well-being, burnout, and anxiety across 63 societies.

http://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fa0023663

3. Journal of Consumer Research, August 2013, Ashok K. Lalwani and Sharon Shavitt. You Get What You Pay For? Self-Construal Influences Price-Quality Judgments.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/670034?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

4. Psychological Science, August 7, 2013, P. M. Greenfield. The Changing Psychology of Culture From 1800 Through 2000.

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797613479387?journalCode=pssa

5. Frontiers in Psychology, January 23, 2017, Chunkai Li, Song Wang, Yajun Zhao, Feng Kong, Jingguang Li. The Freedom to Pursue Happiness: Belief in Free Will Predicts Life Satisfaction and Positive Affect among Chinese Adolescents.

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.02027/full

6. Psychological Science, July 1, 2013, J. A. Mourey, D. Oyserman, C. Yoon. One Without the Other: Seeing Relationships in Everyday Objects.

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797613475631

7. Psychological Science, August 31, 2016, K. Eom, H. S. Kim, D. K. Sherman, K. Ishii. Cultural Variability in the Link Between Environmental Concern and Support for Environmental Action.

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797616660078

8. Journal of Business Research, March 2015, Gad Saad, Mark Cleveland, Louis Ho. Individualism?collectivism and the quantity versus quality dimensions of individual and group creative performance.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296314002872