American Individualism Rises and Falls With the Economy:Cross-Temporal Evidence That Individualism Declines When the

Study 4

While Studies 1–3 examined the relationship between the economy and individual behaviors and values, Study 4 extended this inquiry to cultural artifacts. Signatures of culture appear both in the behaviors, actions, and attitudes of individuals, as well as the sociocultural environments they inhabit (DeWall et al., 2011; Kim & Markus, 1999; Morling & Lamoreaux, 2008). Residues of culture have been found in mediums ranging from magazine and TV advertisements to themes in children’s books, religious texts, and even paintings (see Morling & Lamoreaux, 2008, for a review).

Study 4 considered whether the state of the economy predicted fluctuating independence and interdependence in one salient cultural medium: popular American songs. Like other cultural products, music both reflects and shapes preferences and values. People are drawn to music that resonates with them (Rentfrow & Gosling, 2003) and music in turn can influence cognition and emotion (Krumhansl, 2002). Popular music also reflects cultural norms (Rothbaum & Xu, 1995; Snibbe & Markus, 2005). For instance, Snibbe and Markus (2005) found that people without a college degree tended to favor country music, which is more likely to depict communal models of agency. People with a college degree, on the other hand, tended to prefer alternative rock, which often emphasizes self-expression and autonomy.

Recently, DeWall et al. (2011) used text analysis to track temporal changes in individualism, antisocial behavior, and the content of emotions in popular American music. Consistent with evidence of rising individualism, they found that since 1980, American songs have increasingly featured more self-focused words (e.g., I, me) and fewer other-focused words (e.g., we, us). However, their analysis ended in 2007 and thus did not include the peak years of the Great Recession. Thus, Study 4 was designed to examine whether economic conditions predicted the relative frequency of self and other oriented language in popular American music and whether a major economic crisis could stall or even reverse the trend toward more self-focused and fewer other-focused words.

 

Method

Procedure. Study 4 examined the linguistic content of popular American songs from 1980 to 2014. Drawing on DeWall et al.’s (2011) methodology, lyrics were gathered for each top 10 song based on the Billboard 100 annual rankings. For each song, the percentage of first-person singular pronouns (e.g., I, me, mine) and first-person plural pronouns (e.g., we, us, ours) was computed using the Linguistic Inquiry Word Count program (Pennebaker, Francis, & Booth, 2007). Singular or plural pronouns can reveal attentional focus to the self or others (e.g., Oyserman & Lee, 2008) and are often used to experimentally evoke independence or interdependence (Gardner et al., 1999; Oyserman & Lee, 2008). Individualism is associated the greater use of singular pronouns which conceptualize the self as an independent agent whereas interdependence is associated with the greater use of plural pronouns which highlight the relational role of the self. Thus, it was predicted that songs with more singular pronouns would become relatively more popular in prosperous times and songs with more plural pronouns would become relatively more popular during downturns. The final sample consisted of 350 songs over at 35-year period. On average, songs contained substantially more first-person singular pronouns (M= 9.51, SD= 4.99) than first-person plural pronouns (M= 1.11, SD= 1.75).

As in the previous studies, economic fluctuations were measured using the annual unemployment rate. Moreover, as in Studies 2 and 3, analyses were conducted at the ecological and individual level.

 

Results

Figure 2 presents the annual unemployment rate and the percentage of first-person singular pronouns in the 10 most popular songs in each year. As shown in Figure 2, when the unemployment rate was high, popular American songs contained fewer singular pronouns, r(35)= -.40, p= .02. Controlling for time trends, similar results emerged (b= -.38, SE= .15, 95% CI [-0.675, 0.081], p= .014). Figure 3 depicts the unemployment rate and the percentage of plural pronouns in the most popular songs by year. As shown in Figure 3, in worse economic times, popular songs were more likely to contain plural pronouns, r(35)= .37, p= .03, with time trends (b= .14, SE= .06, 95% CI [0.010, 0.268], p= .035).

Similar results emerged when the percentage of singular and plural pronouns in each song was submitted to OLS regression analyses controlling for time trends. As in Studies 2 and 3, standard errors were clustered by year to account for the nonindependence of multiple songs within each year. As shown in Table 5, in periods of higher unemployment, popular songs were less likely to contain self-focused lyrics. Conversely, in bad economic times, songs were more likely to feature plural pronouns or other-oriented lyrics. Controlling for time trends, a 1-point increase in the unemployment rate was associated with a 0.46-point decrease in the percentage of singular pronouns and a 0.16-point increase in the percentage of plural pronouns. Predicted values from these regressions suggest that a shift from the lowest unemployment rate (4.0%) to the highest (9.7%) during this time period was associated with a 21% decrease in singular pronouns and a 103% increase in plural pronouns.

 

Discussion

While Studies 1–3 showed that economic conditions predicted behavioral and attitudinal changes in individualism, Study 4 revealed similar patterns in cultural products. During bad economic times, popular American songs were less egocentric and more oriented toward relationships and connections with others. Yet when the economy was flourishing, Americans favored music that was more self-focused and less relationally oriented. These findings suggest that economic conditions influence not only personal attitudes and behaviors but also cultural symbols and products.