Holism (i.e. a context-dependent processing style more prevalent in East Asian cultures) and analyticism (i.e., a context-independent processing style more prevalent in Western cultures) are well-researched in cultural psychology, and, to a lesser extent, in developmental psychology. In two meta-analyses, we examined the degree to which cultural differences in holism and analyticism between East Asians and Western Europeans were similar among younger and older age groups. We based our meta-analysis on 42 studies (N=2510) that included holism- and/or analyticism-related outcomes and recruited participants from both East Asian and Western Cultures. Studies that examined age differences recruited participants from younger (18–30 years) and older (60–88 years) age groups. Using random effects analyses, we found that cultural differences in both holism- and analyticism- related outcomes were significantly moderated by age group. For holism, younger East Asians were significantly more holistic than younger Western Europeans, Hedge’s g=.55, p<.001, while there were no significant difference in holism among older East Asians and older Western Europeans, Hedge’s g=-.17, p=.385, Q=10.32, p=.001. For analyticism, younger East Asians were significantly less analytic than younger Western Europeans, Hedge’s g=.69, p<.001, while the same cultural difference was even stronger among the older adults, Hedge’s g=1.72, p<.001, Q=10.98, p=.001. We discuss the implications of these results for the distinct theoretical perspectives that cultural differences are more strongly expressed in old age (Fung, 2013), and that age is an equalizer for cultural differences (Park, Nisbett, & Hedden, 1999).
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