Increasing Need for Uniqueness in Contemporary China: Empirical Evidence.

Huajian Cai,Xi Zou,Yunzhi Liu,Yiming Jing,Yi Feng

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00554

Abstract

Past research has documented various cultural and psychological changes in contemporary China. In two studies, we examine how Chinese people’s need for uniqueness (NFU) also has changed. In Study 1, we found a significant cross-generational increase in Chinese participants’ self-reported NFU. In Study 2, we sampled the names of Chinese newborn babies over the last five decades and found that parents have been increasingly likely to use unique characters to name their children. These findings suggest that the NFU has been rising in China, a historically collectivistic-oriented society. Theoretical and practical implications of our findings were discussed.

Highlights

Unprecedented economic growth and social transformation have led to substantial changes in Chinese people’s psychology
Study 1 showed that young people tend to have a higher need for uniqueness (NFU) than older people, providing preliminary evidence for the increasing NFU in China
As self-reports are subject to various methodology artifacts such as social desirability, response style, and reference group effect (Bachman and O’Malley, 1984; Paulhus, 1991; Heine et al, 2002)

Summary

Introduction

Unprecedented economic growth and social transformation have led to substantial changes in Chinese people’s psychology. Past research has found that a variety of individualistic values (e.g., autonomy; Xu and Hamamura, 2014) and traits (e.g., narcissism; Cai et al, 2011) have been rising in China, a historically collectivistic-oriented society. We focused on a possible change in Chinese people’s need for uniqueness (NFU), a psychological need that is typically high in the West but assumed to be relatively low in the East (Markus and Kitayama, 1991). We investigated whether the NFU has been increasing in China. Examining this issue will enrich our understanding of Chinese people’s psychological change

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Conclusion