Individualism and Collectivism in Israeli Society: Comparing Religious and Secular High-School Students

Abstract

Triandis' theoretical framework, concerning cultural patterns labeled individualism and collectivism, is probed with regard to the religious marker in the Israeli Jewish society. Three methods are used to examine collectivism-individualism constructs in 185 religious and 956 secular high school students: value items, interest in different domains of history, and attitudes toward political issues. A common collective basis of mutual value consensus was found in the two groups; however, as predicted, there were differences between secular and religious students on the three kinds of items, since the religious scored higher than the secular students on items emphasizing collectivist orientation. The differences, however, do not fit the common theoretical framework of collectivism-individualism, but rather tend to reflect the distinction between in-group and universal collectivism.