According to psychologist Richard Nisbett and his colleagues, people from different cultures do perceive the world differently. Describe the different ways in which European Americans and Asians perceive the world differently and include the results of research studies conducted on this subject

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answer will include that European Americans are individualistic people who tend to focus on themselves and their sense of personal control. In contrast, Asians are collectivist people who tend to focus on their personal relationships and social responsibilities. As a consequence, European Americans tend to perceive actions in terms of internal factors ("she did it because she chose to do it"). In comparison, Asians tend to explain actions in terms of their social context ("he did it because it was his responsibility to his family"). In one study, American and Japanese participants were shown drawings of everyday scenes, such as a farm. Later, they saw a slightly changed version of the scene. Some of the changes were made to the focal point, or figure, of the scene. Other changes altered the surrounding context, or ground, of the scene. European Americans were better at detecting changes in the figure of the scene, while Japanese participants were better at finding alterations in the background. Researchers also presented American and Chinese participants with pictures of a figure (such as a tiger) placed on a ground (such as a jungle) and monitored their eye-movement patterns. The Americans focused their eye movements on the figure, while the Chinese participants made more eye movements around the ground. In other words, Westerners have a relatively narrow focus of attention, whereas Asians have a broader focus of attention.