This title might cause some people to instantly feel defensive, but feelings aside, there is no hiding from this truth. I am American, I grew up in America and now that I have lived abroad for almost 2 years, I have really started to see just how individualistic Americans really are. Even the selfless Americans I know have very individualistic behaviors. I have individualistic behaviors and it never ceases to amaze me just how American I really am when a friend or colleague in Europe points out the things I do that are different from how people do things here. How can I know that I act differently when I’ve just been acting like those in my surrounding environment for my whole entire life?

 

The Cruel, But Honest, COVID-19 Mirror

Let’s just take a look at how America is being portrayed on the news right now during the COVID-19 pandemic. While seemingly everyone else in the world is staying inside and obeying social distancing rules, Americans are protesting. They are holding signs in front of nurses saying things along the lines of “Social Distancing = Communism” or “It’s My Right to Get a Haircut”. In case you didn’t know, other countries are laughing at this behavior. They are laughing because it is too confusing to react in any other way. I am laughing, too, because I am honestly just speechless.

The amazing thing about COVID-19 is it is showing the true colors of people at the individual, national, and global scale. This pandemic is an opportunity for people to compare their behaviors to those of others, those raised under different cultural circumstances. Now I don’t say compare as if it should be a method for criticizing ourselves. No, I am simply suggesting that this unique ability to make comparisons should help open our eyes to the many different ways people react to such a severe situation. In addition, it should open our eyes to the fact that our culture has a HUGE influence on our behavior and an even HUGER influence on how others interpret our behavior.

A Personal Example of American Individualism

My mentor and friend, an Italian, recently described to me the difference between the USA and Italy when it comes to academic work (based on his experience living in the states for a year). He told me that American’s tend to work with a more individualistic attitude, while Italians tend to prioritize teamwork. Why did he tell me this? Well, it is because of the way I was viewing my supervisor and my current situation was from a very individualistic lens. I was struggling with the Ph.D. process here because I am so passionate about my research that I want my work to be published where I want it to be published. However, I am part of a team right now. My work is meaningless if it can’t be our work. If my work isn’t interesting or beneficial for my professor, it doesn’t mean a thing because I am here to help the lab, the department, and the Ph.D. program move forward. In return, I will become a Doctor of Philosophy and can take that title with me wherever I choose to go.

I think it is important for me to say that I don’t criticize myself for having this individualistic mentality towards my work. I am proud of myself for always standing up for what I believe to be true and I would not change my passion for anything in the world. However, I also see how my character, the one that has been shaped from the cultural influences I’ve been exposed to my entire life, can be seen as “too much” or “too forward” by an Italian professor. Probably by most European professors and maybe other professors around the world. I come from a place where I was taught to not be walked all over and to hold on with a death grip to my ideas because if I don’t I’ll never get to where I want to go. This isn’t necessarily true, though, and I am starting to see how the success of the team can be even more powerful than the success of the individual.

Why Are We the Way We Are?

I don’t know why Americans tend to have this strong obsession with individual success. It is everywhere you look in the states. People want a shiny new car even if they can only afford to live in a trailer. We use credit cards to buy our status symbols over a period of time. We cannot afford our lifestyles because we have to show “I am successful” right now to our friends, family, neighbors, and the rest of the world. I know not every American is this way, but there are a lot more American’s I know that act like this than there are Europeans…the numbers just don’t lie based on my personal experience so I feel comfortable generalizing a little bit to put my point across.

Maybe our behavior has come from our history, the fact that we came to this new land to find true freedom and freedom really is an individual thing. People don’t usually say “We have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”, they say “I have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” It’s true, according to our constitution, I have this right, you have this right, she has this right, so does he, and so does they and everyone! However, when we talk about freedom we say, “I am free”. Using an “I statement” when it comes to freedom can be a bit like walking on thin ice, though, because my actions cannot do anything to challenge the freedom of someone else. This brings me directly back to the audacity of protestors to social distancing because by walking around in big crowds, these free American protestors are forcing other free Americans to stay in their homes longer than they have to. This is not just COVID-19 behavior, this is the same behavior many Americans display in many other facets of life, even when there is not a pandemic going on.

Steps for the Future

I hope for my readers to think about how their cultural influences might have played a roll in shaping their adult behaviors. I would also hope that my readers think about how this behavior might be taken by people with other cultural backgrounds. After this, it is interesting to think about how you can modify your behavior to be more suitable for working together with others with similar and different cultural backgrounds. Awareness is a powerful tool that fights feelings of defensiveness and criticism. Awareness can help you see who you are from the eyes of others and see how or why getting along with or working with others isn’t always so easy.

 

Stay safe and healthy y’all!