Monday, August 22, 2005

East is East and West is West

It appears that Easterners and Westerners really do see things differently, literally, according to psychologists at the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, US. These psychologists examined the eye movements of Chinese and American students as they looked at a photograph. The western group, looked at the central object in the photo, while the eastern group looked all over the photo, seeing the context.

This is interesting because, it has been noted for a long time that we look at things differently. Chinese philosophy tends to emphasize harmony, and how things work together, while the West tends to be very analytical, and look at things a part at a time. Curious.

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