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A review by pattricejones
The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently...and Why by Richard Nisbett
Nisbett came late to a notion that had already been discussed extensively in other disciplines (not to mention by other social psychologists) but does an adequate job of summarizing the old news that people from different cultures not only think about but even perceive the world differently, with these differences having profound repercussions.
Nisbett does a grave disservice by leaving out African and Native American patterns of cognition, but he does make a significant original contribution and it is to see the cognitive orientations he does cover as "self-reinforcing, homeostatic system[s]."
In short, Nisbett argues that different material (economic, ecological, etc.) forces lead to different social structures. Then, "different social practices and child training will result in people focusing on different things in the environment. Focusing on different things will produce different understandings about the nature of the world. Different worldviews will in turn reinforce differential attention and social practices. The different worldviews will also prompt differences in perception and reasoning processes -- which will tend to reinforce [those] worldviews."
The systemic nature of all of this, and in particular the interlocking interactions of social, material, and cognitive factors, ought to be understood by any activist in the business of provoking people to think differently.
Nisbett does a grave disservice by leaving out African and Native American patterns of cognition, but he does make a significant original contribution and it is to see the cognitive orientations he does cover as "self-reinforcing, homeostatic system[s]."
In short, Nisbett argues that different material (economic, ecological, etc.) forces lead to different social structures. Then, "different social practices and child training will result in people focusing on different things in the environment. Focusing on different things will produce different understandings about the nature of the world. Different worldviews will in turn reinforce differential attention and social practices. The different worldviews will also prompt differences in perception and reasoning processes -- which will tend to reinforce [those] worldviews."
The systemic nature of all of this, and in particular the interlocking interactions of social, material, and cognitive factors, ought to be understood by any activist in the business of provoking people to think differently.