Abstract
Which value-related perspective better aligns with the search for meaning: individualism or collectivism? We explored the impact of group individualism or collectivism and attitude toward meaning on the relationship between the search for and the presence of meaning among individuals. Thus, three studies were conducted: one correlation study and two behavioral experiments. In Study 1, 638 Chinese participants completed questionnaires on meaning in life, horizontal and vertical individualism and collectivism, and attitude toward meaning. Attitude toward meaning had some effect on the relationship between meaning searching and meaning presence among individualistic group members and a significant moderating effect among collectivistic group members. Next, to clarify the role of attitudes in this relationship, Study 2 (N = 180) compared individual attitudes toward meaning-seeking and meaning-existing stories, revealing that the Chinese participants had a more positive attitude toward the latter. In Study 3 (N = 499) we further compared the attitudes of participants in the individualist and collectivist groups toward stories of not searching, meaning-seeking failure, meaning-seeking success, and the ongoing search for meaning after finding it. The results showed that participants in the individualist group had a more positive attitude toward not searching for meaning, while those in the collectivist group endorsed meaning-seeking and continued search for meaning after finding it. These results illustrate for the first time that the attitude toward the search for meaning is affected not only by a collectivist or individualist country’s mainstream culture but also by each person’s preference for individualist or collectivist values.
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The data sets analyzed in this study are available by contacting the corresponding authors.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by Hainan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 322QN242).
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This work was supported by Hainan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 322QN242).
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Xiaobin Ding and Xiyun Zhong were responsible for designing the experiment, writing and revising the manuscript, while Xiyun Zhong, Tiejun Kang, Yuetan Wang and Juanjuan Li were responsible for collecting the data and analyzing the results.
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Ding, X., Zhong, X., Kang, T. et al. Individualism vs. collectivism: influences on attitudes in china toward the search for meaning in life. Curr Psychol 43, 14738–14750 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-05482-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-05482-4