Resource allocation by Greek and Dutch students: A test of three models

Three models are presented that explain cross-cultural differences in the a llocation of resources to various social categories. (1) Individualism-coll ectivism predicts, for all kinds of resources, a higher allocation in colle ctivistic than in individualistic societies to members of one's ingroup. (2 ) Kagitcibasi's model of family change makes a distinction between material and nonmaterial resources. Collectivistic value patterns should lead to hi gher allocation of nonmaterial resources than found in individualistic soci eties, but no such difference is expected for material investments. Both th ese models assume cross-cultural differences in value orientations at a hig h level of generality. (3) An alternative is proposed, predicting universal patterns of exchange with only context-specific crosscultural variations a t a low level of generality. Hypotheses derived from the three models are t ested with data from Greece and The Netherlands. It is concluded that the r esults are most compatible with the third model.