I have known about Hofstede’s work on cultural dimensions since high school when I took IB psychology. And I have always appreciated how useful it was to have some language that helped discuss some of the notable patterns in cultural differences between countries.
However, I believe my thoughts on cultural dimensions have gained more nuance now that I have been able to be apart of culture different than my home cultures for two months.
I specifically want to articulate my thoughts on the Individualism—Collectivism dimension. Costa Rica scores compared to Japan and the US (my home countries) as the following:
Individualism— 15 (CR); 46 (JPN); 91 (US)
As the scores indicates, the US scores the highest relatively on the individualism scale, making Costa Rica the least individualistic out of the three and Japan right around the middle.
Growing up constantly comparing the US and Japan (my two cultures) had manifested Japan as almost a baseline for what I consider to be a collectivistic culture and the US as an individualistic one (although I recognise this is my metacognition being lazy and wanting to simplify concepts).
I can understand why Japan is almost at the cusp between being considered more collectivistic or individualistic as it is not exactly collectivistic perhaps in our traditional sense of family, but more so in regards to company loyalty and the overall population/environment.
I think this is the major difference that made me at first question why Japan scored higher than Costa Rica on this scale. Because to me, Japan is more collectivistic (as in there is a difference to how that is defined to me perhaps compared to the Hofstede Insights team).
From my observations petty crime is much lower in Japan (as there tends to be feelings of obligation to look after others even if they are strangers), whereas petty crime is quite high in Costa Rica. Or even the cities tend to be cleaner in Japan as again, there is a sense of responsibility felt towards how we as individuals are impacting our environments which did not seem to be as prevalent in Costa Rica (and mind you, on a whole the cities in Japan are more populated than the ones in Costa Rica).
However, the way Costa Rica was more collective showed up in their family cultures. Ticos care deeply about their family bonds, often living close to their extended family, spending holidays (even small ones) or weekends with them.
In comparison, I saw my extended family in Japan and even in the US maybe for major holidays once or twice a year only because we all lived far apart from each other. Even on a day to day basis my host parents spent a lot of time with each other, whereas people and parents in Japan typically work extremely long hours every day.
Overall, this has made me think deeply about what makes a culture collectivistic and what “group” responsibilities mean to each culture.
From my perspective, although family priorities can be viewed as collectivistic, this still feels relatively more individualistic than collectivistic for me because you were born into these families, it has become an extension of the self.
In comparison, looking out for your impact towards complete strangers feel more collectivistic because it feels more concerned with the community as a whole than your family that you have perhaps more of a direct care for or stake in.
However, I acknowledge that perhaps as the social contract theory theorises, looking out for strangers come with the trust that they will look after for you in return, so perhaps it is still self-serving in a way.
I wonder if therefore, it would be more beneficial to think about what type of group orientations exist within cultures than to just say that they are relatively more collective as clearly that can appear in many ways. And what cultures count as the extension of the self and therefore we can determine perhaps that some countries are more individualistic than first meets the eye.
All in all, something I have been thinking about a lot regarding the dimensions is how they all work a lot more dynamically together. For example, if Ticos are more family oriented this directly could be influencing also the more indulgent or feminine (nurturant) aspects of the culture I have observed. Specifically, as spending time with family requires a balance with work and the ability to share perhaps more intimate vulnerable parts of yourselves within those circles.
This is all to say, cultural dimensions are clearly a great jumping point and there can be some expansions on the way we even define the dimensions; could cultures even be placed on spectrums or is each country like it’s own constellation (it’s own thing)?
