Individualism and racial tolerance

Abstract

This paper explores how cultural values associated with individualism versus collectivism affect attitudes toward racial tolerance. Individualism refers to social norms and cultural values that support individual rights and self-determination. Therefore, individualism is inherently egalitarian and should transcend racial identities, fostering attitudes of racial tolerance. To empirically examine the correlation between values associated with individualism and attitudes favoring racial tolerance, individual-level data from the Integrated Values Surveys is collected across multiple countries and over a span of time (1981–2021). The results indicate a positive association between individualism and racially tolerant attitudes. Furthermore, this conclusion remains robust after controlling for demographic and socio-economic variables such as income, education, religious affiliation and attendance, social trust, as well as country and time fixed effects. The within-country analysis enables the isolation of the impact of individualism from other potential confounding factors.

Appendix 1 Data description

Variables	WVS description
Dependent variables
Racial tolerance	Equal to one if respondent did not indicate that people of a different race is a group of people they do not want as neighbors. Data are standardized
Muslim tolerance	Equal to one if respondent did not indicate that Muslim people group they do not want as neighbors. Data are standardized
Jewish tolerance	Equal to one if respondent did not indicate that Jewish people is a group they do not want as neighbors. Data are standardized
Immigrant tolerance	Equal to one if respondent did not indicate that immigrants/foreign workers is a group of people they do not want as neighbors. Data are standardized
Individualism measures
Private ownership	Coded from 1 to 10 where 10 indicates completely agree that private ownership of business and industry should be increased versus government ownership of business and industry should be increased. Data are standardized
Competition good	Coded from 1 to 10 where 10 indicates completely agree that competition is good versus competition is bad. Data are standardized
Free choice control	Coded from 1 to 10 where 10 indicates a great deal of free choice and control over life versus feeling no control at all to what happens to them. Data are standardized
Justifiable: Homosexuality	Coded from 1 (never justifiable) to 10 (always justifiable): homosexuality is justifiable. Data are standardized
Justifiable: Abortion	Coded from 1 (never justifiable) to 10 (always justifiable): abortion is justifiable. Data are standardized
Obedience	Dummy variable = 1 if obedience is an important quality that children can be encouraged to learn at home. Data are standardized
Tolerance and respect	Dummy variable = 1 if tolerance and respect for other people is an important quality that children can be encouraged to learn at home. Data are standardized
Individualism indices
Individualism BMH index	Index created by extracting the first principal component from four individualism questions: (1) private ownership, (2) make parents proud, (3) homosexuality justifiable, (4) abortion justifiable. A higher score reflects a greater level of individualism. Index is standardized
Economic individualism index	Index created by extracting the first principal component from three economic individualism questions: (1) private ownership, (2) competition good, (3) free choice and control. A higher score reflects a greater level of individualism. Index is standardized
Social individualism index	Index created by extracting the first principal component from four social individualism questions: (1) homosexuality justifiable, (2) abortion justifiable, (3) obedience, (4) tolerance and respect. A higher score reflects a greater level of individualism. Index is standardized
Individualism index	Index created by extracting the first principal component from the three economic and the four social individualism questions: (1) private ownership, (2) competition good, (3) free choice and control, (4) homosexuality justifiable, (5) abortion justifiable, (6) obedience, (7) tolerance and respect. A higher score reflects a greater level of individualism. Index is standardized
Demographic controls
Age	Equal to age of respondent
Age2	Equal to age squared
Female	Dummy variable = 1 if female
Married	Dummy variable = 1 if married
Income	Income scales coded as a variable going from one to eleven, where one indicates the lower step in the scale and eleven the highest step in income scale
Education	Dummy variables = 1 for low, middle, and upper, respectively. Low education is excluded group
Employed	Dummy variable = 1 if respondent indicated her employment status as full-time employed, part-time employed, or self-employed
Urban	Dummy variable = 1 if town size is 50,000 or greater
Social Class	Dummy variables = 1 for five subjective social class categories, lower class, working class, lower middle class, upper middle class, and upper class, respectively. Lower class is excluded group
Social controls
Trust	Dummy variable = 1 if answered yes to the question most people can be trusted
Trust other nationality	Dummy variable = to 1 if answered trust completely or trust a little to the question how much do you trust people of another nationality
Religious attendance	Coded from 1 (never) to 8 (more than once a week) to the question: How often do you attend religious services? Higher score reflects more religious service attendance
Religious denomination dummies	Dummy variables = 1 if individual belongs to major religious denomination: Roman Catholic, Protestant, Russian Orthodox, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Other Christian, or Other, respectively. Do not belong is excluded group
National pride	Dummy variable = 1 if respondent is very proud or proud to be of nationality of their country
Job preference nationals	Dummy variable = 1 if agree that when jobs are scarce employers should give priority to nation people than immigrants
Men better leaders	Dummy variable = 1 if agree or strongly agree that "On the whole, men make better political leaders than women do"
Political ideology	Coded from 1 to 10 to the question: How would you place your views on this scale, left (1) to right (10)? Higher score represents more right leaning ideology