That is crazy talk. I don't believe it. Korea and Japan both have crazy levels of "face" in their culture (and Taiwan to somewhat less extent), and they all produce huge amounts of high quality scientific papers.
Seems like a wild generalization.
It is not wild, if you can't disagree with the majority I'm skeptical of your ability to discover truths.
I anecdotally feel religious or leftist western circles very much fall under the definition of face culture though.