Cultural orientations in the United States - (Re)examining differences among ethnic groups

The authors investigate differences in individualism and collectivism betwe en the four largest ethnic groups in the United States (African Americans, Asian Americans, Latino Americans, and European Americans). It has been ass erted that U.S. minorities score higher in collectivism compared to Europea n Americans, whereas European Americans score higher in individualism than minorities. The authors reexamined these assumptions using meta-analytic te chniques with new data (total N = 1,510). Asian Americans and African Ameri cans but not Latinos scored higher in collectivism than did European Americ ans. African Americans exhibited the highest levels of individualism. The a uthors discuss the cultural, historical, and social factors that should be taken into account to adequately characterize cultural orientation of socia lly constructed groups.