Post by elipshutz on May 18, 2016 20:33:48 GMT
While reading the psychology of war and the article on collectivism vs individualism, I could not help but make some connections. I wonder if a country has very strong collective views if they are more likely to go to war. Obviously countries where people see themselves as more individualistic still partake in war, but I would be interested to see if there was any correlation.
For example lets say a certain country is attacking another minority from another country. I would assume that if the country had a strong sense of collectivism they would be more likely to go to war or at least fight back with the other country. This is because they see not just a part of their population being attacked, but rather their entire community. They take offense of something that might not be individually harmful to them, but instead harmful to the entire group. It would be interesting to see how these things are related.
I would say as Americans we value individuals. Like the article mentioned I would assume we are more likely to say general statements such as " I am happy" as opposed to context specific statements such as " I am happy when I am talking to my mom." However, I would like to hope that if a foreign country was only targeting a specific group of Americans, the whole nation would come to their defense.
What do you think the connections are on the likely hood of nation to go to war and valuing individualism vs collectivism? What do you think America is or what do you personally identify as?
For example lets say a certain country is attacking another minority from another country. I would assume that if the country had a strong sense of collectivism they would be more likely to go to war or at least fight back with the other country. This is because they see not just a part of their population being attacked, but rather their entire community. They take offense of something that might not be individually harmful to them, but instead harmful to the entire group. It would be interesting to see how these things are related.
I would say as Americans we value individuals. Like the article mentioned I would assume we are more likely to say general statements such as " I am happy" as opposed to context specific statements such as " I am happy when I am talking to my mom." However, I would like to hope that if a foreign country was only targeting a specific group of Americans, the whole nation would come to their defense.
What do you think the connections are on the likely hood of nation to go to war and valuing individualism vs collectivism? What do you think America is or what do you personally identify as?