The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently...andA “landmark book” (Robert J. Sternberg, president of the American Psychological Association) by one of the world's preeminent psychologists that proves human behavior is not “hard-wired” but a function of culture. Everyone knows that while different cultures think about the world differently, they use the same equipment for doing their thinking. But what if everyone is wrong? The Geography of Thought documents Richard Nisbett's groundbreaking international research in cultural psychology and shows that people actually think about—and even see—the world differently because of differing ecologies, social structures, philosophies, and educational systems that date back to ancient Greece and China. As a result, East Asian thought is “holistic”—drawn to the perceptual field as a whole and to relations among objects and events within that field. By contrast, Westerners focus on salient objects or people, use attributes to assign them to categories, and apply rules of formal logic to understand their behavior. From feng shui to metaphysics, from comparative linguistics to economic history, a gulf separates the children of Aristotle from the descendants of Confucius. At a moment in history when the need for cross-cultural understanding and collaboration have never been more important, The Geography of Thought offers both a map to that gulf and a blueprint for a bridge that will span it. |
From inside the book
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... complex to Asians than to Westerners, and understanding events always requires consideration of a host of factors that operate in relation to one another in no simple, deterministic way. Formal logic plays little role in problem solving ...
... complex to Asians than to Westerners, and understanding events always requires consideration of a host of factors that operate in relation to one another in no simple, deterministic way. Formal logic plays little role in problem solving ...
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... complex, and generally benign social organism where clear mutual obligations served as a guide to ethical conduct. Carrying out prescribed roles—in an organized, hierarchical system— was the essence of Chinese daily life. There was no ...
... complex, and generally benign social organism where clear mutual obligations served as a guide to ethical conduct. Carrying out prescribed roles—in an organized, hierarchical system— was the essence of Chinese daily life. There was no ...
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... complex network describes the relations between the ear and each of the internal organs. The notion that the removal of a malfunctioning or diseased part of the body could be beneficial, without attending to its relations to other parts ...
... complex network describes the relations between the ear and each of the internal organs. The notion that the removal of a malfunctioning or diseased part of the body could be beneficial, without attending to its relations to other parts ...
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... complex, interconnected field is exemplified by the practice of feng shui, still continued in the East. When someone wishes to build a building, it is essential to call in a feng shui master. This person takes account of a seemingly ...
... complex, interconnected field is exemplified by the practice of feng shui, still continued in the East. When someone wishes to build a building, it is essential to call in a feng shui master. This person takes account of a seemingly ...
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Contents
The Social Origins of Mind | |
Eyes in Back of Your Head or Keep Your Eye on the Ball? | |
The Bad Seed or The Other Boys Made Him Do It? | |
Is the World Made Up of Nouns or Verbs? | |
Ce Nest Pas Logique or Youve Got a Point There? | |
And If the Nature of Thought Is Not Everywhere the Same? | |
EpilogueThe End of Psychology or the Clash of Mentalities? | |
Notes | |
References | |
Index | |
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The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently - and Why Richard E. Nisbett No preview available - 2019 |
Common terms and phrases
abstract American participants ancient Chinese ancient Greek Ara Norenzayan argument Aristotle’s Asian Americans Asians today asked participants assumption attributes behavior believe causal China Chinese and American Chinese philosophers cognitive colleagues college students complex Confucian context contradiction culture debate Developmental psychologists dialectical East Asians Easterners and Westerners environment enzyme Q European Americans evidence example fact field dependent Fundamental Attribution Error Gang Lu goals Greeks Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars harmony holistic Hong Kong human important Incheol Choi independent individual inferences interdependent Japan Japanese Kaiping Peng Kitayama Koreans Koreans and Americans language law of noncontradiction less Li-jun Ji Markus Michigan Mohists nature Nisbett nouns objects one’s orientation particular people’s percent political preference principle propositions reasoning relations relationships rules sense showed Social Psychology societies Taoist target tend tested theories things thought understand University values verbs West whereas Witkin