I may have found my answer:

For those who don't know Geert Hofstede, he is a Dutch researcher who studied cultural differences from country to country (I think about 80 countries in total). He had 5 different dimensions, and individualism was one of them:

"There are only seven (7) countries in the Geert Hofstede research that have Individualism (IDV) as their highest Dimension: USA (91), Australia (90), United Kingdom (89), Netherlands and Canada (80), and Italy (76).

The high Individualism (IDV) ranking for the United States indicates a society with a more individualistic attitude and relatively loose bonds with others. The populace is more self-reliant and looks out for themselves and their close family members."

Perhaps this is one of the reasons why Americans (in general) to not favor socialist ideas... just thought it was interesting. here's the link if you want to see more: United States - US or American Geert Hofstede Cultural Dimensions Explained