Individualism and Collectivism: Reconsidering Old Assumptions (Survey‪)‬

Traditional views of individualism and collectivism suggest that Eastern countries will exhibit collectivistic tendencies while Western countries will exhibit individualistic tendencies. The purpose of this study was to examine whether these findings have changed in the intervening 25 years of global evolution. An electronic survey was administered to 209 students in the United States and 315 students in China. The survey included 17 items from previous research on individualism and collectivism. Results indicate that there are significant differences on all nine questions dealing with collectivism and six of the eight questions dealing with individualism. However, these differences were unexpected, showing that the United States is becoming more collectivist while China is becoming more individualistic. These results may be due to the globalization of trade and the increasing homogeneity of Generation Y around the world. INTRODUCTION