Global Increases in Individualism
Top Cited Papers
- 13 July 2017
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Psychological Science
- Vol. 28 (9), 1228-1239
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617700622
Abstract
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.Keywords
Funding Information
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (435-2014-0685)
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