Thanks (well possibly) to Neuroanthropology for this. Its a report of an MIT research project which purports to show that ten American students found relative judgements hard, but absolute judgements easy. Ten recently arrived students from Asia had the reverse pattern. This seems to link to other experiments which have shown a difference between object focus and context focus between the two cultural groups. My own view on this (an rough hypothesis based on some reading but no more than that) is that the evolutionary pressure on the brain of different language types (pictorial v phonetic) places different requirements. To understand a language of pictograms requires greater awareness of context than say English and it is easier to make precise (absolute) statements.
One quote from the article is interesting: People from different cultures don't see the world differently, but they think differently about what they see. I am not so sure about that. I think it's also what we pay attention to, based on past experience and expectation (there are other studies on this that need to be brought into play here). So overall I think we have another useful contribution here to understanding the nature of cultural differences, but it is not the whole picture. It is however another nail in the coffin of those who take an information and process centric approach to international organisations.
Comments (4)
Dave,
I'm curious -- why do you ascribe the differences to language rather than just cultural norms and expectations from "the East" vs "the West"?
I would have thought the added hypothesis was unsupported -- unless, of course, you can demonstrate a culture with a pictographic language in, say, South America that shows similar characteristics.
Posted by Stephen | January 20, 2008 1:56 PM
Posted on January 20, 2008 13:56
I am working from the work of Deacon (Symbolic Species) which showed the degree to which language influences the evolution of the brain.
Posted by Dave Snowden![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.cognitive-edge.com/blogs/dave/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 20, 2008 7:34 PM
Posted on January 20, 2008 19:34
I think it's both. Being German (western, non anglo-saxon and non pictorial), I can try and analyze myself and there are things which I can only express and use meaningfully in English because the concept just does not exist in German (like: competitive intelligence, or management).
Even more interesting is french becuase the sentences are sorted in reverse (strange enough, the frenchmen say the same about the germans;-)
So is this now the influence of language (naive Sapir-Whorf? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapir%E2%80%93Whorf_hypothesis ) or am I moving between cultures, putting on different hats, switching identities?
Posted by christianhauck![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.cognitive-edge.com/blogs/dave/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 21, 2008 4:11 PM
Posted on January 21, 2008 16:11
'is this not the influence of language?'
- perhaps it is the influence of your own perception and categorisation of 'language' as dervied from past socialisation (training/experience) ... someone else who also speaks english, french and german ... might respond and express themselves very differently ...
"or am I moving between cultures, putting on different hats, switching identities?"
- Why categorise them and see them as independent (Can you really separate them out?), perhaps they are interdependent and the knowledge/perception/learning of one influences the knowledge/perception/learning of the other ... and vice versa ...
I find this comment really interesting ... does a culture or language or our perception of it remain constant in time and thus can the 'I' really travel between cultures? Is it not the 'I' that is part of and influencing culture and language? Is it not all fluid?
:)
Posted by Kelly Page | January 24, 2008 12:43 AM
Posted on January 24, 2008 00:43