The cultural differences between the West and the East shape their respective ways of thinking and cognition, which play an important role in modern society and international relations. This book examines whether the logical thinking of the West and the search for harmony in the East can be reconciled and how this will shape the future world order.
Until about 12 years ago, author Richard Nisbet refused to recognize the differences between cultures, believing, as a “Westerner,” that people use the same rules of reasoning across cultures. After meeting a graduate student from China who advised him on the differences between Western and Eastern cultures, he was skeptical at first, but a series of studies on whether human reasoning abilities can be altered by education changed the universalist’s perspective. Turning to cultural psychology, he worked with graduate students and colleagues to understand Western and Eastern cultures through a series of experimental studies. Rather than comparing East and West in a completely binary way, he emphasizes that each culture has certain average tendencies.
Modern Western characteristics can be traced back to ancient Greece, and modern Eastern characteristics can be traced back to ancient China. Ancient Greece was a city-state, with a coastal location that favored trade over agriculture. People were in frequent contact with people of different cultures, religions, and ideas, often with conflicting claims. Rather than collectively earning a living in a village, individuals often had to earn a living independently. Movement between countries was relatively free, so arguments that were not accepted in one country could be made again in another. The ecological and social environment of ancient Greece allowed for intellectual curiosity and autonomy. The contemplation of abstract concepts, the formulation of pure theories, and the development of rhetoric were their main interests.
Ancient China, on the other hand, was a centralized state with navigable rivers and large areas of land around it. Building canals and cultivating land for agriculture required the strength of many people, which made a town move as an organism. Individuals had to fulfill their roles as members of society and work to maintain group harmony. A fluid and compromising attitude was required, one that maintained good relations with others rather than asserting one’s own point of view. In ancient China, people studied not just to satisfy their intellectual curiosity, but for its practical value. They believed that contradictory things could coexist, that the universe was complex, and that there were a myriad of causes for an effect. These characteristics of ancient Greece and ancient China are the foundation of modern Western and Eastern cultures.
According to anthropologist Edward Hall’s distinction, the West can be described as a low-context society and the East as a high-context society. In low-context societies, individuals can be talked about in isolation from their context, while in high-context societies, individuals are closely connected to other individuals and are heavily influenced by the surrounding context. As a result, Westerners tend to overestimate their own uniqueness, while Asians tend to underestimate themselves as similar to or less than others. Western parents emphasize independence in their children, while Eastern parents emphasize interdependence. These parenting styles and cultural traits lead to different thinking systems in children raised in each culture.
Westerners can be said to be long-independent thinkers because they look at individual things in isolation, separating form from content, while Easterners are long-dependent thinkers because they see a continuum of things in a holistic context. In addition, Westerners attribute the cause of an outcome to the properties of an object, while Easterners believe that there are complex and diverse causes, including circumstances. Westerners are better at using formal logic than Easterners and often favor either/or logic, but this makes them prone to basic attribution errors. Easterners tend to be more tolerant of contradictions and less argumentative than Westerners, making it harder for them to excel in rhetoric. Whether these differences between the West and the East will become more extreme or be absorbed by one or the other is debatable, but the author believes that they will accommodate each other and converge somewhere in the middle.
The author’s interest in cultural psychology and his decision to write this book were influenced by the people around him: he had graduate students and colleagues of various nationalities who worked with him or participated in his research. It was very helpful for him to be able to see both Western and Eastern perspectives from a researcher’s perspective. The majority of the book consists of experimental studies that he and his colleagues conducted together, and while the number of samples used in the studies is not clear, the results he presents are notable for the differences in cognitive systems between Western and Eastern cultures. In the age of globalization, countries have more people to compare themselves to, and this may have allowed them to identify and reinforce the characteristics they need. In the East, including South Korea, logical and critical thinking is trained from elementary school onward. In the West, there is a focus on developing attitudes for community living and understanding people of different races and religions.
Even within a culture, there can be people with Western traits and people with Eastern traits. Problems between them are likely to be resolved more amicably than problems between people of different cultures. Even within the same culture, if one person talks about the properties of an object and the other talks about the context of a situation, the way they try to solve the problem will be the same. If you’re a Westerner, you’re likely to win or lose on logical grounds, and if you’re an Asian, you’re likely to consider making concessions to find a compromise. However, if the two people are from different cultures, the Westerner will try to identify the only correct argument through debate, while the Easterner will expect the other to make concessions in order to find a compromise. Based on this fact, it is essential to understand cultural differences when dealing with international issues.
While South Korea and Japan have fully embraced Western culture, it’s not because Westernized Eastern countries didn’t develop without Western help. Unlike Western religions, Eastern religions tend to be more accepting of other religions and seek unity, and similarly, Eastern countries are concerned about their place and role in the world. In addition, self-reflective Orientals are more likely than Westerners to want to learn more about the West in order to improve their own shortcomings. However, while they recognize their deficiencies, they cannot say why they need to improve. This is because Asians are good at the “how” but not the “why”. If you look at history, many of the world’s greatest inventions were born in ancient China. The ancient Chinese created inventions as answers to how to solve problems. Meanwhile, the ancient Greeks questioned the cause of problems and gathered in the public square to refine their theories, criticizing or supporting each other’s theories. Just as the combination of different genes helps an individual survive and maintain the species, the development of human civilization has been made possible by the contributions of different cultures.
The U.S.’s wariness of China as a possible future superpower also reflects the Eastern view of things as fluid. For example, if China’s growth rate is increasing every year and the United States’ growth rate is decreasing, the Western cognitive system may assume that this trend will not change. On the other hand, an Easterner’s cognitive system might think that this trend could change at any time. In this case, the U.S. would feel a sense of crisis and work to reduce the rate of decline, which is the result of using an Eastern mindset. China will realize that their growth rate may not be sustainable and will try to prepare for it. These strategies may be pointless in the short term, but in the long term they will be crucial for sustainable growth.
Based on several experimental studies and their findings, this book addresses the cognitive differences between the West and the East. However, the author concludes by saying that these differences can be harmonized to the benefit of both the West and the East.
