The impacts of individualism and collectivism on Asian Americans' philanthropic behaviors : a preliminary study

The study attempts to explain how Asian Americans give and volunteer in comparison to Anglo Americans using the constructs of individualism and collectivism. By comparing 218 Asian Americans and 218 Anglo Americans who are similar in demographic characteristics, the study reports 4 findings. First, Asian Americans were higher in collectivism and lower in individualism than Anglo Americans. Second, Asian Americans tended to give more to the ethnic group than to the rest of the nation. Ethnic specificity in giving increased with collectivism. However, Anglo Americans tended to volunteer more time for the ethnic group than for the rest of the nation. Ethnic specificity in volunteering decreased with collectivism. Finally, there was no significant ethnic difference in terms of whether they preferred personal or organizational philanthropy. Both ethnic groups slightly favored organizational philanthropy over personal philanthropy