Collectivism and Governmentally Initiated Restrictions

Abstract

This article provides evidence for a link between cultural collectivism and indexes of governmentally initiated restriction both across nations and within one nation, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. In Investigation 1, across U.S. states, an index of legislative restriction is positively related to an index of collective behaviors. In Investigation 2, across nations, an index of political restriction is positively related to measures of national cultural collectivism. In Investigation 3, longitudinal analyses suggest that cultural measures predict restriction better than vice versa, although this evidence is stronger and more consistent across nations than across states. The present findings are discussed in terms of their contribution to understanding the relationship between culture and politics.

The Biological Roots of Complex Thinking: Are Heritable Attitudes More Complex?

“…(2) We are primarily interested in demonstrating the consequences of heritability on individual attitudes; thus, it makes sense to use individuals as the unit of analysis. (3) In essence, this strategy is (both statistically and methodologically) no different than the common technique of assigning “conditions” based on different categories of topic stems or different wording of scenarios (e.g., Bourgeois, 2002; Conway & Schaller, 2005; Cullum & Harton, 2007; Tesser, 1993), or a strategy that uses a repeated macrolevel variable to predict something at a microlevel (e.g., Conway, Clements, & Tweed, 2006). (4) Prior work applying the Martin et al (1986) and Eaves et al (1989) heritability figures have relied, at least in part, on a similar strategy that employs assigning the participant as the unit of analysis (Bourgeois, 2002; Tesser, 1993).…”

Northerners and Southerners Differ in Conflict Culture

“…Governments use laws to spell out and distribute their citizens' rights and obligations as well as their rewards and punishments. Laws can prevent and de-escalate, or ignite and escalate conflicts (Van de Vliert, 1998), especially by restricting the freedoms of categories or groups of citizens (Conway, Sexton, & Tweed, 2006;Conway et al, 2017). This can be particularly true when those laws are discriminatory in nature.…”

Free speech as a cultural value in the United States

“…Our research will evaluate the impact of a specific cultural context (individualism-collectivism) on support for freedom of speech. The focus on individualism-collectivism stems from documented evidence, discussed further in the next section, that individualist and collectivist cultures differ in the degree to which their members accept governmental intervention on social issues (Conway, Sexton, & Tweed, 2006;Kemmelmeier, Wieczorkowska, Erb, & Burnstein, 2002;Ozawa, Crosby, & Crosby, 1996).…”

“…In the context of support for free speech, culture should moderate the effect of political orientation on support for free speech. Given that collectivist cultures are characterized by greater support for governmental regulation of individuals' lives (e.g., Conway et al, 2006;Ozawa et al, 1996), we would expect conservatives in collectivist cultures to "amplify" this by expressing greater support toward governmental regulation of freedom of speech, relative to liberal individuals. In other words, conservatives should be less supportive of freedom of speech than liberals in collectivist contexts.…”

“…We included data on individualism/collectivism for each U.S. state in the sample using the U.S. state collectivism index developed by Vandello and Cohen's (1999), and which has been widely used in the cultural psychology literature (e.g., Allik & Realo, 2004;Conway, Ryder, Tweed, & Sokol, 2001;Conway et al, 2006;Crowder & Kemmelmeier, 2017;Harrington & Gelfand, 2014;Kemmelmeier et al, 2002;Kemmelmeier, Jambor, & Letner, 2006;Thornhill & Fincher, 2011;Varnum, 2012). (Triandis, 1989).…”