CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY
How East and West Think Differently
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- Why do people from different parts of the world perceive reality in such different ways?
- Why do some focus on the individual while others prioritize the collective?
- Why is it that one culture prizes logic and categories, while another values context and harmony?
One influential work, The Geography of Thought by Richard E. Nisbett, explores these very questions. It examines how Eastern and Western cultures have developed distinct ways of perceiving the world, reasoning, and defining the self.
While psychology often assumes human thinking is universal, this book shows us how deeply our mental habits are shaped by history, philosophy, and culture.
Human thought, then, is not simply the product of the brain alone. It is shaped, refined, and directed by the societies we live in.
To understand this better, let us take a closer look at how Eastern and Western cultures have cultivated distinct styles of thinking across centuries.
