Nisbett Richard E, Masuda Takahiko
Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2003 Sep 16;100(19):11163-70. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1934527100. Epub 2003 Sep 5.
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.
东亚人和西方人对世界的认知和思考方式截然不同。西方人倾向于关注某个焦点物体，分析其属性并进行分类，试图找出支配其行为的规则。所使用的规则包括形式逻辑。因果归因往往只专注于物体，因此常常出错。东亚人更有可能关注一个广阔的感知和概念领域，注意到其中的关系和变化，并根据家族相似性而非类别归属对物体进行归类。因果归因强调背景。社会因素在引导注意力方面可能很重要。东亚人生活在有着既定角色关系的复杂社会网络中。关注背景对于有效运作很重要。更为独立的西方人生活在限制较少的社会环境中，能够奢侈地关注物体以及他们与物体相关的目标。环境的物理“可供性”也可能影响感知。东方的建筑环境比西方的更复杂，包含的物体也更多。此外，东方的艺术作品强调领域而淡化单个物体，包括人。西方艺术展现的领域较少，强调单个物体和人。
