Transitory determinants of values and decisions: The utility (or nonutility) of individualism and collectivism in understanding cultural differences

The determinants and effects of cultural differences in the values described by individualism-collectivism were examined in a series of four experiments. Confirmatory factor analyses of a traditional measure of this construct yielded five independent factors rather than a bipolar structure. Moreover, differences between Hong Kong Chinese and European Americans in the values defined by these factors did not consistently coincide with traditional assumptions about the collectivistic vs. individualistic orientations. Observed differences in values were often increased when situational primes were used to activate (1) concepts associated with a participant's own culture and (2) thoughts reflecting a self-orientation (i.e., self- vs. group-focus) that is typical in this culture. Although the values we identified were helpful in clarifying the structure of the individualism-collectivism construct, they did not account for cultural differences in participants' tendency to compromise in a behavioral decision task. We conclude that a conceptualization of individualism vs. collectivism in terms of the tendency to focus on oneself as an individual vs. part of a group may be useful. However, global measures of this construct that do not take into account the situational specificity of norms and values which reflect these tendencies may be misleading, and may be of limited utility in predicting cultural differences in decision making and other behaviors.