The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think

The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently...and Why

A â€œlandmark bookâ€ (Robert J. Sternberg, president of the American Psychological Association) by one of the world's preeminent psychologists that proves human behavior is not â€œhard-wiredâ€ but a function of culture.

Everyone knows that while different cultures think about the world differently, they use the same equipment for doing their thinking. But what if everyone is wrong?

The Geography of Thought documents Richard Nisbett's groundbreaking international research in cultural psychology and shows that people actually think aboutâ€”and even seeâ€”the world differently because of differing ecologies, social structures, philosophies, and educational systems that date back to ancient Greece and China. As a result, East Asian thought is â€œholisticâ€â€”drawn to the perceptual field as a whole and to relations among objects and events within that field. By contrast, Westerners focus on salient objects or people, use attributes to assign them to categories, and apply rules of formal logic to understand their behavior.

From feng shui to metaphysics, from comparative linguistics to economic history, a gulf separates the children of Aristotle from the descendants of Confucius. At a moment in history when the need for cross-cultural understanding and collaboration have never been more important, The Geography of Thought offers both a map to that gulf and a blueprint for a bridge that will span it.
Country USA
Brand Free Press
Manufacturer Free Press
Binding Paperback
ItemPartNumber 9780743255356
ReleaseDate 2004-04-05
UnitCount 1
EANs 9780743255356

Country	USA
Brand	Free Press
Manufacturer	Free Press
Binding	Paperback
ItemPartNumber	9780743255356
ReleaseDate	2004-04-05
UnitCount	1
EANs	9780743255356

The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently...and Why

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