Does diversity foster individualism? The relation of racial-ethnic diversity to individualism-collectivism across the 50 American States

Recent longitudinal research by others analyzing the relation between racial-ethnic diversity and individualism-collectivism in the 50 American states over the period 2000-2018 suggests that racial-ethnic diversity promotes individualism. The present study used a cross-sectional approach based on 2013 data to determine whether a relation mirroring the longitudinal pattern exists between racial-ethnic diversity and individualism-collectivism across the 50 states. Two measures of state racial-ethnic diversity were related to four measures of state individualism-collectivism using Pearson correlation and partial correlation controlling for state socioeconomic status. All correlations between diversity and individualism were negative and all those between diversity and collectivism were positive. The absolute magnitudes ranged from .43 to .68 for the Pearson correlations and from .43 to .67 for the partial correlations. Contrary to the earlier longitudinal findings, the current results show that states with higher racial-ethnic diversity are less individualistic and more collectivistic.

Coronavirus-Related Searches on the Internet Predict COVID-19 Vaccination Rates in the Real World: A Behavioral Immune System Perspective

According to the smoke detector and functional flexibility principles of human behavioral immune system (BIS), the exposure to COVID-19 cues could motivate vaccine uptake. Using the tool of Google Trends, we tested that coronavirus-related searches-which assessed natural exposure to COVID-19 cues-would positively predict actual vaccination rates. As expected, coronavirus-related searches positively and significantly predicted vaccination rates in the United States (Study 1a) and across the globe (Study 2a) after accounting for a range of covariates. The stationary time series analyses with covariates and autocorrelation structure of the dependent variable confirmed that more coronavirus-related searches compared with last week indicated increases in vaccination rates compared with last week in the United States (Study 1b) and across the globe (Study 2b). With real-time web search data, psychological scientists could test their research questions in real-life settings and at a large scale to expand the ecological validity and generalizability of the findings.

The Roles of Legacy Versus Social Media Information Seeking in American and Chinese Consumers’ Hoarding During COVID-19

Through two studies conducted with cross-cultural samples (the United States and China), this research examines the psychological mechanism of consumer hoarding during COVID-19. Findings from Study 1 suggest that consumer hoarding is differently affected by legacy and social media information seeking, perceived scarcity, and scarcity attributions in the United States versus China. For China, while social media information seeking has a negative downstream relationship to hoarding, legacy media information seeking has a positive relationship with hoarding. In the United States, only social media information seeking has a positive relationship with hoarding. Further, these effects are significant when consumers attribute the scarcity responsibility to insufficient supply but not high demand. Study 2 shows that when the cause of scarcity is stated directly, perceived scarcity increases hoarding intention for Chinese consumers when the scarcity cause is due to supply but not demand, whereas U.S. consumers’ hoarding intention does not vary with the scarcity cause. The findings underscore cross-cultural differences in how legacy and social media information seeking influence consumer hoarding and highlight implications for situations in which hoarding is likely.

Extending the boundaries of psychological ownership research: measurement, outcomes, cultural moderators

Purpose

Psychological ownership (PO) theory and extended self theory explain why someone feels like the owner of his/her job or organization. Yet, there is limited prior research examining whether PO differs as an individual versus collective phenomenon, and in different cultural contexts. The authors extend this literature by examining the dimensionality of PO, multiple outcomes and cultural values as boundary conditions.

Design/methodology/approach

Data from surveys of 331 supervisors from Mexico and the US were collected to examine the relationships between the theorized constructs. The authors apply two-stage least squares (2SLS) regression analysis to alleviate endogeneity concerns and produce robust results.

Findings

Both individual and collective PO (IPO and CPO) are positively associated with organization-based self-esteem (OBSE) and a new outcome, paternalistic leadership behavior. Cultural values are significant moderators with an individualistic orientation enhancing and a power distance orientation attenuating these relationships.

Originality/value

This study extends PO theory and extended self theory by investigating whether IPO and CPO have different outcomes considering contextual differences in cultural values. Additionally, the authors capture the frequency of paternalism instead of its mere occurrence.