Values, Norms, and Peer Effects on Weight Status

Table 1

OLS estimates of average BMI on individual BMI (individualistic versus collectivistic).

	All (without controls)	All (with controls)	Individualistic	Collectivistic	Individualistic	Collectivistic
			Country-based		Individual-based
Average BMI	0.905	0.367	0.163	0.423	0.621	0.519
	(0.023)	(0.054)	(0.087)	(0.079)	(0.199)	(0.133)
95% CI
	37917	37917	22172	15745	4605	5529
Adj.	0.106	0.130	0.112	0.182	0.162	0.119

The dependent variable is individual BMI. At the country level, individualistic countries are Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and UK. Collectivistic countries are Austria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Spain, Israel, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, and Slovenia. At the individual level, individualistic is for those individuals having 75% or above centered values of achievement and power. Collectivistic is for those individuals having 75% or above centered values of universalism and benevolence. Controls are average BMI (from its country age band gender cell), individual characteristics (dummies of age groups (with <20 as the reference group), gender, marital status, and education), household income (4-point scale, with 1 = very difficult on present income as the reference), and country dummies. Robust standard errors are in parentheses; 95% confidence intervals (CI) are in brackets. < 0.1, < 0.05, and < 0.01.