Are Cultures Becoming Individualistic? A Cross-Temporal Comparison of Individualism–Collectivism in the United States and Japan

“Research suggests that effort is valued more in collectivistic societies than in individualistic societies, as it is seen as a key for goals valued in these societies, such as self-improvement and social harmony (Heine et al., 1999).”

“…pronoun drop, or whether the language of a society allows pronouns to be dropped (E. Kashima & Kashima, 1998), and the index of pathogen prevalence, or the extent to which disease-causing pathogens were prevalent in a society’s historical environment (Fincher et al., 2008; Murray & Schaller, 2010).”

“Finally, greater cultural-level individualism is also related to higher divorce rates (Hamamura, 2012; Triandis, 1995).”

“The MSPSS was originally validated in the US which is considered an “individualistic” society [51].”

“advertisements) (Hamamura, 2012).”

“This indicates that Japanese individuals have become more individualistic in some respects (Hamamura, 2012). In addition, at the macro level, for example, the system of individualism has been employed in many companies (i.e., individual achievement-based evaluation; Joe, 2004; Takahashi, 2010). As a consequence, peopl…”

“…culture, we also took into consideration of the potential national-level confounds in the context of adolescent smoking (Forster & Wolfson, 1998; Hamamura, 2012; Warren et al., 2000), including adolescent smoking prevalence, cigarette affordability, level of cigarette advertising regulation,…”

“And more attention would need to be paid to rising individualism and narcissism in EastAsian cultures (Cai et al., 2012; Hamamura, 2012).”

“Recall that studies from the US and Japan, for example, have also shown links between sociocultural change and rising individualism (Twenge and Foster, 2010; Hamamura, 2012).”

“Lastly, although national culture is often viewed as a relatively stable factor, it is also subjective to change (Hamamura, 2012; Huang et al., 2018).”

“Although individualism is often seen as a characteristic of Western cultures, rates of individualism are growing worldwide as a function of increasing globalization (Hamamura, 2012; Santos, Varnum, & Grossmann, 2017).”

“…undergraduate students at Kyoto University in Japan (62 male, 52 female; Mage = 19.5, SDage = 1.77) and 62 undergraduate students at University of WisconsinMadison in the U.S. (29 male, 33 female; Mage = 19.3, SDage = 1.17; 60 White and 2 Hispanic born in the U.S.) participated in this study.”

“…(Kashima and Kashima, 1998) and pathogen prevalence Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 2 May 2017 | Volume 8 | Article 695 (e.g., Fincher et al., 2008; Murray and Schaller, 2010) at the national level (e.g., Diener et al., 1995; Lester, 1995; Toth and Kemmelmeier, 2009; Hamamura, 2012).”

“Furthermore, Ogihara and Uchida (2014) suggested that globalization has created a pressure toward increasing individualism, especially the kind that seems to be practiced in the United States (also see Hamamura, 2012).”

“, 2002) and some facets are more responsive to societal change than others (Hamamura, 2012).”

“Similarly, in a cross-temporal analysis of Japanese culture, Hamamura (2012) found some evidence of continuing collectivism over the last several decades, despite substantial socioeconomic changes in Japanese society during the same period.”

“Recent evidence suggests that individualistic values, including social norms regarding the desirability of favorable self-conceptions, are becoming increasingly pervasive throughout the world (Hamamura, 2012; Ogihara et al., 2015; Uz, 2014).”

“Losing confidence over time: temporal changes in self-esteem among older children and early adolescents in Japan, 1999–2006.”

“Cultural dimensions are defined as: individualism/collectivism, gender in society, tolerance of uncertainty, the level of hierarchy in society, long-term orientation (Hamamura [73]; Hofstede [74]).”

“The congruence between materialism and collective-oriented values in collectivistic culture is further evidenced through commonly encountered collectivistic social norms that include face-saving, conformity, and social support for high ambition (Güngör, Karasawa, Boiger, Dinçer, & Mesquita, 2014; Hamamura, 2012; Park,…”

“Globalization is a pattern of worldwide social change that is inclusive of, but certainly not limited to, the shift towards more urbanized, educated, and wealthier ecology; various societal factors of globalization co-contribute to the modification of cultural values over time (Hamamura, 2012; Inglehart & Baker, 2000;…”

“Others have added that a collectivism culture could move to individualism as a consequence of economic growth and modernization (Guthrie, 1998; Hamamura, 2012).”

“Thus we have seen apparently Western ideologies such as consumer capitalism finding fertile ground in Asian countries; indeed, the “modernization” theory of cultural change suggests a general global movement toward greater individualism (Hamamura, 2012).”

“Nevertheless, the importance of interpersonal relationships and other traditional cultural values persist in Eastern cultures despite a simultaneous increase in individualism (e.g., Hamamura, 2012; Inglehart & Baker, 2000).”

“Such homogenisation obscures the dynamic heterogeneity of these regions (Hamamura, 2012), and overlooks the fact that across Western academia many disparate references to B/H can be found.”

“Despite evidence to support modernization theory, many societies change slowly or maintain key historical social and organizational traits when they do change, despite increasing wealth (Norris & Inglehart 2002; Hamamura 2012).”

“At the macro-level, research suggests that individualistic cultural contexts, such as the United States, are becoming more individualistic (Hamamura, 2012).”

“Individualists are more trusting of others, whereas collectivists are less likely to trust those beyond their in-groups (Hamamura 2012).”

“Thus, it is important to examine whether Japanese culture has changed toward greater individualism by investigating indicators other than those used in previous research (Hamamura, 2012; Ogihara et al., 2015).”

“Individualism and societal and economic modernization are strongly correlated, and this relationship can be found across different cultures (Hamamura, 2012).”

“Collectivism and individualism have been discussed from different perspectives for many years [6], [9], [10], [14], [15], [21], [23], [25], [27], [30], [40], [43], [45], [47], [49], [51].”

“Inglehart (1990), Schwartz (1992,1994), Lester (1995), Triandis (1995), Vandello and Cohen (1999), Hamamura (2012), Beugelsdijk et al.”

“The external validity of the framing effect in moral decision making in Eastern cultures needs to be explored, as evidence suggests that the two cultures differ in the cognitive assessment processes of decision making (Hamamura, 2012).”

“For decades, social orientation and cognitive style have been at the center of the demonstration about the role of culture in thought and behavior (Grossmann & Na, 2014; Hamamura, 2012; Heine, 2010; Kitayama et al., 2007; Markus & Kitayama, 2010; Nisbett, 2007; Norenzayan, Choi, & Peng, 2007; Tsai, 2007).”

“When historical trends other than increasing selfenhancement are examined, both American and Japanese trends show increasing individualism in some domains, but increasing collectivism in others (Hamamura, 2012), suggesting that historical changes may not be uniform and unilinear.”

“We present a study that examined social role effects on gender stereotyping in Germany as a Western, independent culture and in Japan as an Eastern, interdependent culture (Hamamura, 2011; Kitayama, Park, Sevincer, Karasawa & Uskul, 2009).”

“There is some evidence that individualism has increased in Japan, although the evidence is mixed (Hamamura, 2012; Yamawaki, 2012).”

“Interestingly, several countries are currently increasing in individualism while not changing in collectivism, with the latter stasis seemingly unexplained (e.g. “ [p]erhaps the most intriguing aspect of this research is the persistence of collectivism in Japan ” [15], p.16).”

“Thus, higher scores indicated a greater emphasis on family and friends, associated with higher collectivism (Hamamura, 2012; Triandis, 1995).”

“American high school students have increased desire for expensive possessions, money, and high-paying jobs (Twenge & Kasser, 2013), and parents place less emphasis on raising obedient children (Hamamura, 2012).”

“Our study used three items from the World Values Survey (WVS) to calculate the level of individualism – collectiv-ism in 65 countries/regions (Hamamura, 2012; Inglehart & Oyserman, 2004).”

“” We followed Hamamura (2012) and operationalized collectivistic values as the mean of two negatively correlated items ( r s = .48, p , .001): the item related to collecti-vist values ( “ to obey ” ) and the item related to individualist values ( “ to think for himself or herself ” reverse coded;…”

“On the one hand, it is well-documented that some aspects of culture change such as the rise of individualism (Hamamura, 2012; Talhelm et al., 2014; Yu et al., 2016) as societies shift from traditional to urban, from poor to rich, from more isolated to more interconnected, from less educated to more…”

“For the robot operator, we instead assessed workload (based on Hart and Staveland (1988)).”

“In a study comparing individualism-collectivism in the United States and Japan, Hamamura (2012) indicated that some indices revealed stronger individualistic tendencies among Japanese people in recent decades, potentially as a consequence of economic growth (Inkeles, 1975).”

“The development of Chinese culture toward consumeristic lifestyle, especially in big cities, can have reduced the gap, and Hofstede’s classification is far from conclusive and completely accepted in recent debates [54], [55].”

“Collectivists culture is more likely to sacrifice personal interests for the attainment of group goals (Brewer & Chen, 2007) and is more likely to enjoy doing what the group expects of them (Hamamura, 2012).”

“However, based on previous suggestions of the relationship between economic growth, cultural change, and narcissism (Hamamura, 2012), we are expecting that the UAE sample scores higher than the UK sample on the NPI instrument.”

“(Inglehart and Baker 2000): Do traditional norms persist or evolve in the face of modernization? Increased economic independence and changing family dynamics in a collectivist society have been argued to lead to a more individualistic society (Hamamura 2012).”

“Modernization stimulates series of both social processes, including urbanization, gender equality, higher education, higher job opportunity (Rössel, 2012), and personal values, such as: increased personal efficacy and equality of gender (Hamamura, 2012).”

“This is especially the case in modern Asian societies where respect for privacy and independence are becoming increasingly important values due to the assimilation of Western culture and lifestyles.(61) Consequently, it is possible that, in this study, a certain percentage of older adults who reported living with fami…”

“We find that there have been several interesting contributions to this specific issue in recent years, specifically concerning the culture dimension involving the relationship between individuals and groups (e.g., Hamamura 2012).”

“In essence, individualism refers to autonomy and independence, while collectivism refers to a dependence on, and association with, important others (Hamamura, 2012; Hofstede, 2001; Kim, 1995; Triandis, 1995).”

“For example, although WVS is extremely valuable to the researchers in the field (Hamamura, 2011; Inglehart & Baker, 2000), a temporal analysis of self-esteem is not feasible.”

“It has been suggested that Japanese culture has become more individualistic at least in some respects (Hamamura, 2012; Ogihara, 2016b; Ogihara, Fujita, et al., 2015; Ogihara, Uchida, & Kusumi, 2015).”