If we take the Singapore situation, one could argue that the Kiasu-negative
attitude (an undesirable competitive attitude that revolves around preventing
others from getting ahead of oneself) should be negatively related to
collectivism, because the Kiasu-negative person would first, be unwilling to
cooperate with others if that would help them get ahead of him/her and, second,
of greater importance, hinder others from meeting their needs if this will help
the Kiasu-negative individual retain his/her lead over them. Therefore, to the
Kiasu-negative individual, collectivism, especially any value reflecting
helpfulness to others in a group environment, should be avoided. Arising
from this argument, the following hypothesis is put forth: