Defining collectivism as duties in relationships rather than generalized warmth improves predictive validity in 100 cultures

Experts widely agree that East Asian cultures are more collectivistic than Western cultures. Yet 76 survey studies found no reliable difference. Our explanation is that the most-used surveys are contaminated with 'warm fuzzy' items, which describe warmth and prosociality towards everyone near and far. We argue that collectivism is better understood as 'responsibilism', which emphasizes responsibilities in close relationships. A survey found that many cultural psychologists expect collectivistic cultures to agree with warm fuzzy items. Then we developed a responsibilism scale and tested 12,247 people in 100 cultures. Results showed large cultural differences (d = 3.98 [2.50, 5.43]) that were previously obscured by flawed measurement. Responsibilism predicted differences across societies (such as family ties and corruption) and individuals (social class and politics) that most earlier scales missed. This study offers a solution to previous puzzling findings by distinguishing warm fuzzy prosociality from responsibilism and introducing a scale with stronger predictive validity.

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Journal
Nature Human Behaviour
Published
2026-09-15
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-026-02525-1
Primary Topic
Cultural Differences and Values
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Defining collectivism as duties in relationships rather than generalized warmth improves predictive validity in 100 cultures

Ali H. Al‐Hoorie, Danila Medvedev, Kazi Nur Hossain, Tobias Ebert et al.
Nature Human Behaviour
Cultural Differences and Values
article

Defining collectivism as duties in relationships rather than generalized warmth improves predictive validity in 100 cultures

Ali H. Al‐Hoorie, Danila Medvedev, Kazi Nur Hossain, Tobias Ebert, Rabi’ah Aminudin, Ying Lin, Qionghan Zhang, Luxi Shen, Jordan Axt, Mai Helmy, Liliya Sultanova, Takeshi Hamamura, Deborah Shulman, Samuel Dawa, Jonathan C. de la Cerna, Pepi Pandiloski, Amanda Atwood, Arobindu Dash, William J. Chopik, Thomas Talhelm, Igor Grossmann, Isaraphorn Pratumchai, Kalliopi Ioumpa, Tengku Nila Fadhlia, Jinseok P. Kim, Masaki Yuki, Michal Kohút, S. Arzu Wasti, Patricia Gale, Rebecca Namatovu, Lusanda Sekaja, Agustín Espinosa, Michael Muthukrishna, Freyr Halldórsson, Ashley Foster-Estwick, Tulips Yiwen Wang, Watcharaporn Boonyasiriwat, Eugene Ohu, Valeria Vitale, Serigne Abdou Lahat Ndiaye, Rui Costa‐Lopes, Jyotshna Dangi, Mahsa Amirzadeh, Chia‐Wen Chen, BoKyung Park, Ирена Сариева, Narendra Singh Thagunna, Vassilis Pavlopoulos, Adi Shaked, Alexander English, Anita Deák, Nicholas Calbraith Owsley, Bojana Većkalov, Synne Marit Kjelling Skagseth, Phakkanun Chittham, Xuemin Zhang, Annabella Osei-Tutu, Mário José Chanja, Amirhossein Abdollahzadeh, Ricardo B. Rodrigues, Jonas R. Kunst, Salome Njambi, Hamidreza Harati, Serhii Lytvyn, Karine Malysheva, Illia Yahiiaiev, Adam L. Putnam, Séamus A. Power, Laura Vuillier, Rui Sun, Liuqing Wei, Alvaro San Martin, Adil Samekin, Alejandra; id_orcid 0000-0001-7239-3200 Zaragoza Scherman, Othman Alkhadher, Yugo Maeda, Orla Muldoon, Eunkook M. Suh, Andreea Ursu, Rocío A. Rivera Crespo, Donna-Maria B. Maynard, Solenne Carof, Oumar Barry, Nara Pratumchai, Katija Khan, Muhammad Rizwan, Nelson Molina-Valencia, Tuong Van Vu, Edna Kabala, Yuri Miyamoto, Maria Constantinou, Elizabeth A. Gilbert, Stefan Agrigoroaei, Erik Chavez, Kara Lord, Chen Zhao, Robert Ritz, Marcus Eugênio Oliveira Lima, Frank Ephraim Kaphesi, Amy H. Du
article en

Abstract

Experts widely agree that East Asian cultures are more collectivistic than Western cultures. Yet 76 survey studies found no reliable difference. Our explanation is that the most-used surveys are contaminated with 'warm fuzzy' items, which describe warmth and prosociality towards everyone near and far. We argue that collectivism is better understood as 'responsibilism', which emphasizes responsibilities in close relationships. A survey found that many cultural psychologists expect collectivistic cultures to agree with warm fuzzy items. Then we developed a responsibilism scale and tested 12,247 people in 100 cultures. Results showed large cultural differences (d = 3.98 [2.50, 5.43]) that were previously obscured by flawed measurement. Responsibilism predicted differences across societies (such as family ties and corruption) and individuals (social class and politics) that most earlier scales missed. This study offers a solution to previous puzzling findings by distinguishing warm fuzzy prosociality from responsibilism and introducing a scale with stronger predictive validity.

Nature Human Behaviour
University of the Philippines Cebu (PH), Hitotsubashi University (JP), University of East Anglia (GB), Northwestern University (US), National Research University Higher School of Economics (RU), Ştefan cel Mare University of Suceava (RO), Reykjavík University (IS), Scripps Research Institute (US), University of Copenhagen (DK), IE University (ES), Nagoya University of Commerce and Business (JP), Sabancı Üniversitesi (TR), University of Ghana (GH), University of Lisbon (PT), University of Trnava (SK), Radboud University Nijmegen (NL), Wenzhou University (CN), University of Waterloo (CA), Tribhuvan University (NP), University of Malawi (MW), Chulalongkorn University (TH), The University of Texas at Dallas (US), The University of Queensland (AU), University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras (PR), University of St Andrews (GB), Palo Alto University (US), Chinese University of Hong Kong (HK), Copenhagen Business School (DK), University of Zagreb (HR), University of Oslo (NO), Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (UA), Universidade Federal de Sergipe (BR), Yonsei University (KR), National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (GR), University of St.Gallen (CH), Aarhus University (DK), College of Charleston (US), Hokkaido University (JP), Curtin University (AU), University of Tehran (IR), University of Johannesburg (ZA), University of Cambridge (GB), Beijing Normal University (CN), Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu (SA), University of Haripur (PK), London School of Business and Finance (GB), Copperbelt University (ZM), University of Cyprus (CY), Kuwait University (KW), Wuhan University (CN), Sorbonne Université (FR), University of Chicago (US), Victoria University of Wellington (NZ), International Islamic University Malaysia (MY), University of the West Indies (TT), American University of Mongolia (MN), Groupe d'Étude des Méthodes de l'Analyse Sociologique de la Sorbonne (FR), Queens University (BD), Iscte – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (PT), Islamic University of Riau (ID), Universidade Independente de Angola (AO), Jagannath University (BD), Busara Center for Behavioral Economics (KE), International University of Business Agriculture and Technology (BD), Maqsut Narikbayev University (KZ), NLR Nepal (NP), Department of Research and Specialist Services (ZW), Moscow State University (TJ), Wenzhou-Kean University (CN), Clínica Sagrada Esperança (AO), University of the West Indies (BB), Oldham Council (GB), Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical (PT), University of Southampton (GB), Imperial College London (GB), Sultan Qaboos University (OM), McGill University (CA), Tashkent State University of Economics (UZ), Arizona State University (US), Universitat Ramon Llull (ES), New York University (US), Pan-Atlantic University (NG), City University of Macau (MO), Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PE), Makerere University (UG), Zhejiang Gongshang University (CN), Hubei University (CN), University of Pecs (HU), RMIT University (AU), Furman University (US), Sapienza University of Rome (IT), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (NL), Michigan State University (US), London School of Economics and Political Science (GB), Universidad del Valle (CO), Bournemouth University (GB), University of Guyana (GY), Cheikh Anta Diop University (SN), Stanford University (US)
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Reduced inequalities
Openalex Percentile: Top 42%
Cultural Differences and Values
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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