Pathogen prevalence predicts human cross-cultural variability in individualism/collectivism

Abstract

Pathogenic diseases impose selection pressures on the social behaviour of host populations. In humans (Homo sapiens), many psychological phenomena appear to serve an antipathogen defence function. One broad implication is the existence of cross-cultural differences in human cognition and behaviour contingent upon the relative presence of pathogens in the local ecology. We focus specifically on one fundamental cultural variable: differences in individualistic versus collectivist values. We suggest that specific behavioural manifestations of collectivism (e.g. ethnocentrism, conformity) can inhibit the transmission of pathogens; and so we hypothesize that collectivism (compared with individualism) will more often characterize cultures in regions that have historically had higher prevalence of pathogens. Drawing on epidemiological data and the findings of worldwide cross-national surveys of individualism/collectivism, our results support this hypothesis: the regional prevalence of pathogens has a strong positive correlation with cultural indicators of collectivism and a strong negative correlation with individualism. The correlations remain significant even when controlling for potential confounding variables. These results help to explain the origin of a paradigmatic cross-cultural difference, and reveal previously undocumented consequences of pathogenic diseases on the variable nature of human societies.

Moral concerns across the United States: associations with life-history variables, pathogen prevalence, urbanization, cognitive ability, and social class

“…Pathogen prevalence -how much exposure a society has had to infectious diseases -is positively correlated with culture-level measures of authoritarianism (Murray, Schaller, & Suedfeld, 2013), religious diversity , collectivism (Fincher, Thornhill, Murray, & Schaller, 2008), and conformity (Murray, Trudeau, & Schaller, 2011), whereas it is negatively correlated with democracy (Thornhill, Fincher, & Aran, 2009), sociosexuality, extraversion, and openness to experience .…”

The behavioural immune system and the psychology of human sociality

“…the operation of functionally flexible neurocognitive systems). But this single explanation cannot account for the full pattern of cross-cultural findings (including the fact that these cultural differences are typically predicted less strongly by contemporary pathogen prevalence than by historical pathogen prevalence [28,41]). A variety of additional explanatory mechanisms must therefore be considered as well, including cultural transmission processes, developmental processes and genetic selection processes too.…”

“…Ecological variation in pathogen prevalence is correlated with the percentage of people in a population who explicitly express intolerance for 'people of a different race' in their neighbourhood [39], and with regional frequency of ethnopolitical warfare [40]. Additionally, collectivistic value systems-which emphasize sharp boundaries between 'us' and 'them'-are especially likely to exist in social ecologies characterized historically by especially high levels of pathogen prevalence [41]. Thus, just as with sociality in general, discriminatory sociality is predicted by infection risk not only at an individual level of analysis, but also at a population level of analysis.…”

Individualism–collectivism, governance and economic development

“…Distance from the equator can also affect governance by defining natural endowments and the disease environment, both factors which scholars have suggested may have influenced the institutional environment which emerged in the new world after colonization (Engerman and Sokoloff 1997;Acemoglu et al 2001;Rodrik et al 2004). Finally, it has been argued that from an evolutionary perspective, the higher pathogen prevalence characteristic of the climatic conditions associated with proximity to the equator, leads people to limit interactions with out-groups in an effort to minimize the risk of infection and, as a result, helps explain the existence of collectivist cultures (Fincher et al 2008). …”