The Ego Trick (baggini, Julian) / quote 112 of 254
Nisbett: how Westerners and East Asians think
recent work of Richard E. Nisbett on the differences between how Westerners (Europeans and North Americans) and East Asians (Chinese, Japanese and Korean) think. Nisbett surveys a wide range of studies and concludes that there are real and important differences in how people from these regions tend to think. In summary form, it sounds very stereotypical. Aspects of East Asian and western thought can be lined up in diametrically opposite pairs: holistic (eastern) vs reductive (western); relational vs atomistic; community-based vs individualistic; and/both vs either/or; in flux vs rigid.