Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Sports are a microcosm of society. A nations sports reflect its peoples values, and contribute to their social identity. Herewe investigated whether countries previously identified as individualistic versus collectivistic tend to excel in individualsports versus team sports, respectively. Individual sports like golf require athletes to focus on personal goals, whereasteam sports like hockey require players to cooperate and to focus on collective goals. We analyzed the rate of Olympicmedals won in individual versus team sports by 11 countries: 5 Western countries identified previously by sociologicaland psychological research as individualistic, and 6 East Asian or Eastern European countries identified as collectivistic.Paradoxically, results showed that individualistic countries won a greater proportion of medals in team sports, whereascollectivistic countries won more medals in individual sports. Findings support the view that cultural mindsets and valueorientations are domain-specific, not monolithic.