Yes, that's what it probably means, but why is it the only culture ideology that has a negative impact?  Culture points are to valuable to waste on negative outcomes and being the first one on the Individualism tree blocks all the others unless you accept the negative.  Just doesn't feel right.

A bit late on this one, but wanted to let you know its been reported because gameplay wise that definitely feels out of place.

One thing I noticed while watching this Stardock video on playing tall vs. wide (at the 6:10 mark):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONQ4UQBM5pY

...is that seems that the "Independence" ideology used to be worded differently.  It used to say "-15% decay from colonies", so it actually reduced the amount of resource decay you would receive (as opposed to increasing it).  According to the video, this is to facilitate a taller play style where you have a reduced amount core worlds with an increased amount of colonies feeding into those core worlds.