Religion & Individualism-Collectivism in Nigeria- A study on the role of religion in explaining a person’s degree of individualism-collectivism for Protestants and Muslims in Nigeria

Abstract: The dimension of individualism-collectivism in values has been shown to affect both innovation and growth. Cross-country differences generally indicate that Protestant countries are highly individualistic, Roman Catholic countries are less individualistic (i.e., more collectivistic) and Muslim countries ¬– especially in Africa – are collectivistic. This cross-country difference makes one wonder about variation within countries, which has not received as much attention. Nigeria is one of the most collectivistic countries in the world and has large populations of Protestants and Muslims. Using data from World Value Survey (2018) and regional statistics, I am able to construct a regression-model for how religion is associated with differences in a person’s degree of individualism-collectivism. I also perform models depending on whether a person is a religious minority or lives in a Nigerian state that implements Sharia. The main result of this paper is that being Protestant is associated with a higher degree of Individualism than being Muslim. This has, to the best of my knowledge, not been done in a development country before and is therefore the main contribution.