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The Geography of Thought: How Asian and Westerners Think Differently …and Why

By Richard E. Nisbett

Published by The Free Press

When I first read the title of the book, my heart jumped. I felt like finally someone is trying to authenticate what I have always felt, that is, in some very fundamental ways we Asians think differently than our Westerner friends. Time and again, while discussing some common issues that touch our lives, from school system to politics and economy, I find that our perspectives are different.

Professor Nisbett has hit this issue in The Geography of Thoughts. His groundbreaking international research answers questions such as:

• Why did the ancient Chinese excel at algebra and arithmetic, but not geometry?

• Why do East Asians find it so difficult to disentangle an object from its surroundings?

• Why do Western infants learn nouns more rapidly than verbs, when it is the other way around in East Asia?

While trying to answer these and other similar questions, the author points out how utterly different approaches to the world have maintained themselves for thousands of years and how these approaches include profoundly different social relations, views about the nature of the world, and characteristic thought processes.

To understand how these differences have historical roots, the author has fundamentally drawn from the philosophies and advancements of the Greeks and Chinese. While Greek people nourished “ a strong sense of individual identity” the Chinese celebrated harmony. He points out that in ancient times, every Chinese (implying Asians, in general) was first and foremost a member of a collective identity. As a result, they tend to think in terms of mutual relationships. For example, the author points out that when he showed an animated underwater scene to his American students, they zeroed in on a big fish swimming among smaller fish, while Japanese students made observations about the background environment and how these fish are a part of the large environment.

One of the interesting observations he points out is that these differences are established very early in our lives. For example, he found that when American mothers play with their toddlers, they tend to ask questions about objects and supply information about them. But when Japanese mothers play with their toddlers, their questions are more likely to concern feelings. They use more feeling-related words, when their children misbehave. According to his research, the consequences of this differential focus on the emotional states of others can be seen in adulthood.

“There is evidence of this differential focus on the emotional states of others can be seen in adulthood”. Asians tend to be more aware of the feelings and attitudes of others than westerners.

Also here is what he says about his research: "When I speak of East Asia I mean China and the countries that were heavily influenced by its culture, most notably, Japan and Korea. When I speak of Westerners, I mean people of European culture. When I speak of European Americans, I mean blacks and whites and Hispanics, anyone but people of Asian descent...............I wish to apologize to those people who will be upset to see billions people labled with the single term "East Asian" and treated as if they are identical. ...The cultures and sub-cultures of the East differ dramatically from one another as do those of the East West. But the broad-brush term "East Asian" can be justified since in a host of social and political ways the cultures in that region are, in some general respects, similar to one another and different from Western countries."

Although The Geography of Thought is slightly more academic, and can at times be more like a research paper jargon, it points out a very fundamental difference and as a result, it makes an interesting read.

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