The Cardinal Assumption is Reforming

Prior to reading this article I knew that culture molds our habits of thoughts, however I never expected it to also mold how we think in the first place. Before the article I had agreed with the cardinal assumption: that the same basic processes underlie all human thought, no matter where someone is. Now I agree with most of the scholars who presented studies in the article. The article proved to be one of my favorites so far and I think that is because I was able to understand it through connection.
                Dr.Richard Nisbett found that people who grow up in different cultures do not just think about different things: they think differently. I knew that there is some variation on how people process things and think about them, but I had no idea how different people actually were.  In one of the studies it said that:

“Easterners, appear to think more ‘holistically,’ paying greater attention to the context and relationship, relying more on experience-based knowledge than abstract logic and showing more tolerance for contradiction. Westerners are more ‘analytic’ in their thinking, tending to detach objects from their context, to avoid contradictions and to rely more heavily on formal logic.”

                WOW.  After reading this I was astonished because I realized that all those things are true and I never really thought about how different we were. I now can understand why Asians are more holistic and take after their experience whether that be their own or their families pasts. Their culture influences all of this because of the strictness and how connected they are with their past causes them to become more holistic. While the American culture influences how we are more analytic and rely on formal logic. This is because our culture is revolved around independence and we have grown up being taught that we need to use our logic and analyze situations thoroughly.

                Another study showed Japanese and American students an animated underwater scene, in which one larger “focal” fish swam among smaller fishes and other aquatic life and they were required to describe what they saw.  Dr.Nisbett did a very good job, in my opinion, of telling how the “Americans were much more likely to zero in on the biggest fish, the brightest object, the fish moving the fastest because that’s where the money is as far as they’re concerned.” This gives a very good example of how the American culture of money and gaining power molds a person’s mind into picking out things where those are.

Describe what YOU see...



One of the paragraphs and studies I thought was the most interesting was how East Asians and Americans responded to contradiction. “Presented with weaker arguments running contrary to their own, Americans were likely to solidify their opinions, Dr.Nisbett said, ‘clobbering the weaker arguments,’ and resolving the threatened contradiction in their own minds. Asians, however, were more likely to modify their own position, acknowledging that even the weaker arguments had some merit.” Immediately I felt connected because I noticed that in my own life I do the same thing that Dr.Nisbett said Americans do. I almost always use weaker arguments to my advantage by making my argument stronger and I rarely reconsider my argument. This has inspired me to change, from now on I will try to think the way that East Asians do and use those weaker arguments to modify my position.