Abstract
Collectivist versus individualistic values are important attributes of intercultural variation. Collectivist values favour in-group members over out-group members and may have evolved to protect in-group members against pathogen transmission. As predicted by the pathogen stress theory of cultural values, more collectivist countries are associated with a higher historical pathogen burden. However, if lifestyles of collectivist countries indeed function as a social defence which decreases pathogen transmission, then these countries should also have experienced fewer disease outbreaks in recent times. We tested this novel hypothesis by correlating the values of collectivism-individualism for 66 countries against their historical pathogen burden, recent number of infectious disease outbreaks and zoonotic disease outbreaks and emerging infectious disease events, and four potentially confounding variables. We confirmed the previously established negative relationship between individualism and historical pathogen burden with new data. While we did not find a correlation for emerging infectious disease events, we found significant positive correlations between individualism and the number of infectious disease outbreaks and zoonotic disease outbreaks. Therefore, one possible cost for individualistic cultures may be their higher susceptibility to disease outbreaks. We support further studies into the exact protective behaviours and mechanisms of collectivist societies which may inhibit disease outbreaks.
Highlights
Numerous studies and reviews have addressed the question of why countries and cultures differ in their tendency to prefer collectivist versus individualistic values and lifestyles[1]
Infect Outbreaks and Zoo Outbreaks were positively and significantly correlated with Individualism, in support of our novel hypothesis that individualistic countries should have been subjected to a higher number of disease outbreaks (Table 1, Figs 1–5)
We confirmed the previous findings of Fincher et al.[3] that collectivist cultures are more likely to be prevalent in countries with a high historical pathogen burden, using first the historical data compiled by Murray and Schaller[10] which was not part of Fincher et al.’s3 original analysis
Summary
Numerous studies and reviews have addressed the question of why countries and cultures differ in their tendency to prefer collectivist versus individualistic values and lifestyles[1]. In order to explain the cultural variation in this collectivism-individualism continuum, Fincher et al.[3] proposed that the ecological and epidemiological pressures exerted by infectious diseases on the social behaviour of human host populations may partly explain the observed differences in collectivism versus individualism. Their underlying assumption is that collectivist societies, by the nature of their social behaviours, decrease the transmission of pathogens more effectively than individualistic societies do. Thornhill and Fincher[7] later considered the original hypothesis of Fincher et al.[3] to be a part of their more inclusive “parasite-stress theory of values and sociality” which explains how collectivist values may act as a social defence against pathogen transmission
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