A new study published in Nature Human Behavior on September 15 suggests that the responsibilities people feel in close relationships can help explain differences between Eastern and Western cultures. The research, led by Thomas Talhelm of Arizona State University, introduces a concept called **responsibilism**, which measures the extent to which individuals feel responsible for their close relationships. The study argues that these responsibilities play a key role in shaping collectivist cultures, where people prioritize the needs of the group over individual desires. To measure responsibilism, the researchers created a survey that was translated into 45 languages and given to 12,247 people from 100 different cultures, covering about 90% of the world's population. The survey included scenarios like keeping aging parents at home or attending a party to meet new people, focusing on how close the people involved were and what actions were taken. It also asked about emotions related to close relationships and how individuals viewed their connection to larger groups. The study found that countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia scored higher in responsibilism compared to North America, Europe, and Australia. Higher responsibilism scores were linked to lower levels of democracy, increased government corruption, fewer policies supporting immigrants, and fewer patents and sales of creative goods. Public health data also showed that countries with high responsibilism scores had fewer deaths from COVID-19 and lower rates of drug abuse. At the individual level, people with higher responsibilism scores were more likely to live with extended family and to lie in court to protect a close friend. Those with lower responsibilism scores, typically from more individualistic cultures, were more likely to return a lost wallet and received fewer parking tickets. Notably, diplomats from countries with high responsibilism scores received more parking tickets, even though diplomatic immunity usually allows them to avoid paying. The number of tickets varied widely, from zero to 246 per diplomat over four years.