Individualism vs. Collectivism: Pros and Cons for Modern Humans

Individualism vs Collectivism Views is an article meant to help us choose a balance between the two current world views with their pros and cons. Look, individualism is no longer a Western worldview. Just as the world is now viewed as a global village, every concept is also global.

What is individualism?

Individualism is “the habit or principle of being independent and self-reliant.” ~ Oxford Languages(1). Individualism is a belief system that focuses on the person’s development and well-being rather than the community or collaborative development. Well, we can ask a lot of questions.

For example, is Brazil collectivist or individualist? What are those collectivist vs individualistic countries? Can we find information related to collectivism vs individualism by country? What’s the difference between collectivist vs individualistic cultures?

We can go on and on. But let’s talk about development again. This development may be in materials or immaterial things, such as personal spiritual growth, mental, or any other abstract development.

Individualism has its history, traditions, doctrines, teachings, and practices. It’s an international idea now, not a localised thing as it was. So, naturally, individualism existed in more diminutive amounts all over the world for many centuries past.

The West (Europe & America) has been known to be the home of the individualistic culture, though this was never the case in the past. Humans used to live as communities with community priorities until sometimes later in human history, when individual interests preceded that of the community.

Capitalism is still part of the individualism or individualistic worldview and culture. The idea of individual and intellectual property rights is a branch of individualism worldview and thoughts and ideologies. For example, self-discovery is an individualist idea, and so does self-improvement. Self-esteem, self-education, and self-development are all individualistic ideas.

Things like working hard for oneself, planning, goal setting, and execution of personal plans are all part of the individualism worldview and its practices. For example, in the West, it has been and is still a culture for each individual to have both short-term and long-term goals, but this is not the case in Africa.

Individualism Pros

Here are a few pros of having an individualistic view of life.

• Personal freedom
• Personal achievements
• Personal awards for certain accomplishments
• Learning new things
• Life enjoyment
• Personal focus
• Influencing others

Individualism is also known as biocentrism. People with many of these personal ideologies are mostly vulnerable to negative emotions, social issues, hopelessness, depression, and even thinking of committing suicide.

Individualism Cons

Here are a few cons of having an individualistic view of life.

• Little to no social support networks
• Issues with emotional compliance/resilience
• Lower option to seek advice or help from other sources or people
• Weak or poor mental health
• No sacrificing or group work supported
• Meaningless life
• Time misused or wasted
• Too much freedom
• Selfishness/self-centredness

In Africa, individualism is seen as selfishness at best. This might be the same in Asian countries even at the time of this writing. But the West is different. For example, in a US-based university, each student may be required to do her academic work without assistance from her friend, who might know better than she does.

In the West, helping a friend succeed academically would possibly violate academic rules and regulations. But, in Africa, that would be seen as selfish if one can’t help a friend, even academically. In Africa, it isn’t cheating to leak an answer to a student friend, but the opposite is true in the West. Do you see the differences?

Now let’s move on.

What is collectivism?

Collectivism is “the practice or principle of prioritising a group over each individual in it.” ~ Oxford Languages (2). Collectivism is a belief system that focuses on collective views, traditions, doctrines, teachings, and practices. It is the opposite of the individualism system discussed above.

Having a collectivistic view of life means one doesn’t measure the personal side of things, such as personal identity, success, fame, etc. Rather, they focus much on improving a group, mainly a community’s success.

As we have said earlier, collectivism is seen as selflessness in Africa. At the same time, individualism is considered selfishness in Africa and Asia until recently when individualism ideologies spread, spilling over to Africa and other parts of the world, mostly silently and unknowingly.

Today, individualism ideologies are mixed with collectivist ideologies everywhere in the world. Even in Africa, especially within the developed(ing) countries, individualism is the culture of the day, and those who practice much are African youngsters.

This means even those who believe in individualism may not know they believe in it simply because they think this is life. They don’t know anything about the collectivist views, or they may see those views as primitive or evil at worst.

Collectivism pros

We may just say that the collectivism pros are the individualism cons, but let’s see a few of these pros below.

• Selflessness and willingness to help others in a group
• The accomplishment of collective goals
• Supporting other members of a group
• Peacefulness in a group
• Stability of a whole group
• Love and unity in a group

These are just a few pros and I believe there are more.

Collectivism cons

• Lack of personal pursuits and goals
• No personal ideologies
• Everyone faces the same troubles
• Fear of new changes
• Encourages laziness

Others may still argue that these cons may also be influenced by individualism or individualistic ideologies and culture. Each group views each set of cons in these opposite worldviews differently. For those who live collective lives, everything in this world looks perfect, and so do those who live in the individualistic world.

Now, where are you?

Where are you leaning?

I want to let you know where I belong by nature. It’s both nature and nurture for us to be either individualistic or collectivistic, and we can’t deny these facts. But, look, we are who we are because of what we inherited from our biological parents or relatives (nature/physical) and how we were raised (nurture/environmental). So the environment is a massive factor in making us who we are, individually and collectively.

I even think, speak, write and act the way I do here because of nature and nurture. And because I was born here in Africa, I can’t be that individualistic 100%. But, as I have mentioned above, I am both an individualistic and a collectivistic person simultaneously. Still, I lean more toward being collectivistic, just because of nature’s and nurture’s effects on my personal life.

Oh, listen, reading and speaking in English only brings individualistic views into one’s life. For us who have been reading and speaking in English for years, there is no doubt we are somehow individualistic in some measure. Even the books in this article are meant to help you personally and professionally; that’s individualism in action.

Look, I admire self-discovery and self-improvement, which is why in the first place, I wrote these posts and articles for people like you to read. I am a mixture of both individualism and collectivist ideologies, so I advise you to be in the middle, not excessively leaning to the other end, just because of the pros and cons of each of these worldviews.

Now, what does the Bible teach? The Bible is more collectivistic than you might think. The Bible encourages polygamy more than you think. The Bible encourages teamwork, group success, and fame more than individual praise and selfishness.

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But selflessness is a task that is difficult for everyone to achieve. Why? This is because it requires work, hard work. So I think we all need a balance.

A balance is needed

At the end of this article, Individualism vs Collectivism, we must conclude that we need some balance between the two world views. But this also might have been an individualism concept as well. Humans are naturally selfish, but we humans have also learned that there is what is called good and evil. We also can do or not do certain things if we only decide to or not to. We can’t change our natures, but we can discover and improve them.

Look, we need to love teamwork and then work together whenever needed, and we can successfully do this without denying or neglecting our visions and pursuits. We have to work for personal goals without ignoring group goals as well.

Too much individualism leads to depression and even suicide at the end of it all. Then too much collectivism leads to the death of individual identity and self-worth. Of course, we all deserve to be acknowledged for our outstanding achievements, but that doesn’t mean we have to be selfish, even to live alone and die alone.

I have heard that in the West, children have to leave their parents as soon as they are 18. In Africa in general, and in South Sudan in particular, that’s lawlessness and selfishness at best. But I have to understand that living in urban cities is not so easy.

So this condition leads people to marry just one wife in a lifetime. This is why I may not understand youngsters who studied somewhere in East Africa or the Western world, simply because they fully appreciate the individualistic side of thinking and living best. Still, I have something little from both worlds. Indeed, there is a gap regarding individualism vs collectivism worldviews.

I hope Individualism vs Collectivism as an article has been helpful to you, personally. If so, please leave a comment below. God bless you!