Originally published September 8 2005
Asians, North Americans literally see the world differently, study finds
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
According to a new study, when shown a picture, North Americans of European background are more likely to concentrate on the foreground of the picture, such as a singular object, while people of Asian background tend to focus more on the background and details of the image. Researchers say the study suggests the two groups actually view the world differently and that Asians may pay more attention to detail because of the culture's complex social world and emphasis on harmony, while North Americans focus on the boldest, most obvious object because of Western attitudes of individualism.
Asians and North Americans really do see the world differently, researchers say in a new study.
Shown a photograph, North American students of European background paid more attention to the object in the foreground of a scene, while students from China spent more time studying the background and taking in the whole scene, according to researchers at the University of Michigan.
Their findings were reported in today's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The researchers, led by Hannah-Faye Chua and Richard Nisbett, tracked the eye movements of the students --- 25 European Americans and 27 native Chinese --- to determine where they were looking in a picture and how long they focused on a particular area.
Harmony vs. individualism The key thing in Chinese culture is harmony, Nisbett said.
Rice farmers had to get along with each other to share water and make sure no one cheated.
Western attitudes, on the other hand, developed in ancient Greece where there were more people running individual farms, raising grapes and olives, and operating like individual businessmen.
So differences in perception go back at least 2,000 years, he said.
He illustrated this with a test asking Japanese and Americans to look at pictures of underwater scenes and report what they saw.
The Japanese were more likely to say they saw a stream, the water was green, there were rocks on bottom and then mention the fish.
Tracking eye movement The Japanese gave 60 percent more information on the background and twice as much about the relationship between background and foreground objects as Americans, he said.
The Americans looked at the object in the foreground sooner --- a leopard in the jungle for example, and they looked at it longer.
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