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Should I use "their traditional lifestyles" or "their traditional lifestyle" in this sentence?

The leaders in many Arabic countries are trying to preserve their traditional lifestyles from Western influence.

or

The leaders in many Arabic countries are trying to preserve their traditional lifestyle from Western influence.

Are two sentences any different from each other?

WeiChinHsing
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    Singular and plural are both fine (plural "emphasises" that there are multiple lifestyles, but singular doesn't necessarily imply they all share the same lifestyle). Compare Many people are turning their back* on {something they shun}*. – FumbleFingers Oct 02 '20 at 14:03
  • ... 'Many people are turning their back on ...' and 'Many people are turning their backs on ...' are virtually identical in meaning. A style choice. But 'The leaders in many Arabic countries are trying to preserve their traditional lifestyle from Western influence' and 'The leaders in many Arabic countries are trying to preserve their traditional lifestyles from Western influence' strongly hint (at least) at a shared lifestyle and a variety of traditional Arabic-leader-lifestyles respectively. – Edwin Ashworth Oct 02 '20 at 15:07

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Either one works syntactically, but there is a semantic difference. I would ask this question: Do the leaders each have their own traditional lifestyle that differs from the others? Or do they all have basically the same shared traditional lifestyle?

Using plural "lifestyles" implies that there are various lifestyles that they want to preserve, as long as they're all traditional. Using singular "lifestyle" implies that they are interested in preserving only one (very narrow or specific) lifestyle.

Jake Frandsen
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