Re: East is East and West is West



Dave Smith wrote:
On 6 Mar, 09:26, Lance <LanceG...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
A team of researchers from Canada and Japan have uncovered some
remarkable results on how eastern and western cultures assess
situations very differently.

Across two studies, participants viewed images, each of which
consisted of one centre model and four background models in each
image. The researchers manipulated the facial emotion (happy, angry,
sad) in the centre or background models and asked the participants to
determine the dominant emotion of the centre figure.

The majority of Japanese participants (72%) reported that their
judgments of the centre person's emotions were influenced by the
emotions of the background figures, while most North Americans (also
72%) reported they were not influenced by the background figures at
all.

"What we found is quite interesting," says Takahiko Masuda, a
Psychology professor from the University of Alberta. "Our results
demonstrate that when North Americans are trying to figure out how a
person is feeling, they selectively focus on that particular person's
facial expression, whereas Japanese consider the emotions of the other
people in the situation."

This may be because Japanese attention is not concentrated on the
individual, but includes everyone in the group, says Masuda.

For the second part of the study, researchers monitored the eye
movements of the participants and again the results indicated that the
Japanese looked at the surrounding people more than the westerners
when judging the situation.

While both the Japanese and westerners looked to the central figure
during the first second of viewing the photo, the Japanese looked to
the background figures at the very next second, while westerners
continued to focus on the central figure.

"East Asians seem to have a more holistic pattern of attention,
perceiving people in terms of the relationships to others," says
Masuda. "People raised in the North American tradition often find it
easy to isolate a person from its surroundings, while East Asians are
accustom to read the air "kuuki wo yomu" of the situation through
their cultural practices, and as a result, they think that even
surrounding people's facial expressions are an informative source to
understand the particular person's emotion."

These findings are published in the upcoming issue of Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology.

Source: University of Albertahttp://www.physorg.com/news123944008.html

Perhaps groups of Japanese people are more likely to share the same
emotion than groups of North Americans. If so, the different
perceptual approaches would be appropriate to the different
conditions.

That seems quite likely given the ethnically and culturally homogenous
population of Japan and the ethnically and culturally heterogenous
nature of America.

Lance
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: East is East and West is West
    ... The researchers manipulated the facial emotion (happy, angry, ... The majority of Japanese participants reported that their ... emotions of the background figures, ... While both the Japanese and westerners looked to the central figure ...
    (uk.philosophy.humanism)
  • Re: East is East and West is West
    ... remarkable results on how eastern and western cultures assess ... The researchers manipulated the facial emotion (happy, angry, ... while most North Americans (also ... Japanese looked at the surrounding people more than the westerners ...
    (uk.philosophy.humanism)
  • Re: Face cultures (Re: Frankfurt School)
    ... but this doesn't explain why in some societies gender relationships ... Japanese, Spaniards and Italians. ... You think some cultures have higher average endorphine/ adrenaline ... I have no idea even IF the neighbors think about me. ...
    (sci.anthropology)
  • East is East and West is West
    ... The majority of Japanese participants reported that their ... emotions of the background figures, ... While both the Japanese and westerners looked to the central figure ...
    (uk.philosophy.humanism)
  • Re: Frankfurt School (Re: What does an evolutionist actually believe?)
    ... > cultures can become counter-productive at a very basic level, ... The Japanese are a "face" culture, for Japanese people it is very important ... degree of discipline in the Japanese society (as well as several other Asian ... national holiday until the 90ies, but now it's no longer work free (except ...
    (sci.anthropology)