2017年的文章，有些地方很有趣

How East and West think in profoundly different ways

The tacit assumption had been that this select group of people could represent universal truths about human nature – that all people are basically the same. If that were true, the Western bias would have been unimportant. Yet the small number of available studies which had examined people from other cultures would suggest that this is far from the case.

As a simple example, imagine that you see a picture of someone tall intimidating someone smaller. Without any additional information, Westerners are more likely to think this behaviour reflects something essential and fixed about the big man: he is probably a nasty person.

“Whereas if you are thinking holistically, you would think other things might be going on between those people: maybe the big guy is the boss or the father,” explains Henrich.

Suppose you are asked to name the two related items in a list of words such as “train, bus, track”...[P]eople in the West might pick “bus” and “train” because they are both types of vehicles. A holistic thinker...would say “train” and “track”, since they are focusing on the functional relationship between the two – one item is essential for the other’s job.

Growing rice requires far greater cooperation: it is labour-intensive and requires complex irrigation systems spanning many different farms. Wheat farming...takes about half the amount of work and depends on rainfall rather than irrigation, meaning that farmers don’t need to collaborate with their neighbours and can focus on tending their own crops.

Sure enough, people in the wheat-growing regions tended to score higher on the measures of individualism, while the people in the rice-growing regions tended to show a more collectivist and holistic thinking. This was true even at the borders between different regions.

He has since tested his hypothesis in India, which also shows a clear divide in wheat and rice growing regions, with similar results. Almost all the people he questioned are not directly involved in farming, of course – but the historical traditions of their regions are still shaping their thinking. “There’s some inertia in the culture.”