Culture and point of view

Abstract

East Asians and Westerners perceive the world and think about it in very different ways. Westerners are inclined to attend to some focal object, analyzing its attributes and categorizing it in an effort to find out what rules govern its behavior. Rules used include formal logic. Causal attributions tend to focus exclusively on the object and are therefore often mistaken. East Asians are more likely to attend to a broad perceptual and conceptual field, noticing relationships and changes and grouping objects based on family resemblance rather than category membership. Causal attributions emphasize the context. Social factors are likely to be important in directing attention. East Asians live in complex social networks with prescribed role relations. Attention to context is important to effective functioning. More independent Westerners live in less constraining social worlds and have the luxury of attending to the object and their goals with respect to it. The physical "affordances" of the environment may also influence perception. The built environments of the East are more complex and contain more objects than do those of the West. In addition, artistic products of the East emphasize the field and deemphasize individual objects, including people. Western art renders less of the field and emphasizes individual objects and people.

Fig. 1.

“Which two go together?” Item from Chiu (28) test.

Fig. 2.

“Which group does the target object belong to?” Target bears a family resemblance to group on the left but can be assigned to group on the right on the basis of a rule.

Fig. 3.

Percent of participants basing similarity judgments on family resemblance vs. rule.

Fig. 4.

Sample of arbitrary objects shown in covariation detection task.

Fig. 5.

Rod and frame test apparatus.

Fig. 6.

Still photo from animated underwater vignette.

Fig. 7.

Focal fish previously seen viewed against previously seen background (Left), no background (Center), or novel background (Right).

Fig. 8.

Still photo from animated “American” city vignette in change blindness study.

Fig. 9.

Still photo from animated “Japanese” city vignette in change blindness study.

Fig. 10.

Focal object and contextual changes detected by Americans (US) and Japanese (JPN).

Fig. 11.

Focal object and contextual changes detected in “American” (US) and “Japanese” (JPN) environments.

Fig. 12.

Schematized rendering of a Japanese street scene for the purpose of assessing number of objects.

Fig. 13.

Photos showing different ideas of relation between central figure and environment in a portrait. (Left) American portrait. (Right) Japanese portrait.

Fig. 14.

Percentage of American and Chinese participants predicting a reversal in trends. Points 1–3, positively accelerated growth curves; points 4–6, negatively accelerated growth curves; points 7–9, positively accelerated decay curves; points 10–12, negatively accelerated decay curves.

Fig. 15.

Number of statements referring to central figures minus number of statements referring to others, by Americans and by Taiwanese tested either in English or in Mandarin.

Fig. 16.

Proportion of statements with intentional content by Americans and by Taiwanese tested either in English or in Mandarin.

Fig. 17.

Proportion of statements with emotional content by Americans and by Taiwanese tested either in English or in Mandarin.