Seeing Things Differently

Although a vast body of research exists revealing the many socio-cultural differences between Japan and the West, it may be interesting to know that research exists suggesting Japanese and Westerners literally ‘see’ the world differently. As a study conducted by Takehiko Takeda and Richard Nisbett contests, the cognitive behavior – how individuals process information to perceive the world around them – is very different between Japanese and Westerners i.e. they are culturally programmed to look at things differently!

The study was conducted showing a number of underwater scenes to both Japanese and American respondents who were asked to recall what they had seen. Within the pictures there were a number of fish in the foreground with other sea objects in the background. Although both groups provided an equal number of statements about the fish in the foreground, Japanese respondents provided 70% more statements describing the relationships between the fish and the background objects. Similar eye-tracking studies have also shown this difference where Westerner’s attention is drawn mainly towards the focal point while Japanese tend to focus on the relationship between the main object and the background.

One of Japan’s most prominent therapist’s, Hayao Kawaii, suggests that this type of behavior can be explained by Japanese employing ‘field oriented thinking’ which lends itself to viewing an object by appreciating its context and its relationship with its background. Westerners, on the other hand, tend to separate the object and evaluate it separate from its background.

These findings seem to support the competing views of self within Japanese society and Western societies:  where in the West a person is viewed largely based on their own individual attributes and have a much stronger sense of self, in Japan a person is evaluated by the company they keep and their sense of self is more malleable in order to adjust more easily to the expectations of the group.