Popular science? Confusion from a northerner: Why don't southerners talk to me when eating?

Tajam said that the initial inspiration came from his own experience. During his trip to Beijing, he found that strangers were very active and enthusiastic: "When I eat alone, someone will always come forward to strike up a conversation." In the southern city of Guangzhou, people are more inclined to watch silently, fearing that taking the initiative to speak will offend him.

It is becoming more and more obvious that history, geography and culture are changing our way of thinking and visual perception in an amazing way, from the great differences between East and West to the subtle differences among American States. Our way of thinking may even be influenced by the crops cultivated by our ancestors. A river may be the dividing line between two different cognitive styles.

"Emphasizing the development of individuality" and "advocating collective spirit" are one of the most obvious differences between the cognitive models of the East and the West. Although there are many exceptions, on the whole, westerners tend to emphasize individualism, while people from Indian, Japanese or China and other Asian countries tend to focus on developing collectivism.

Holistic thinking runs through eastern philosophy and culture.

In many cases, the impact of this difference is extensive. When asked about people's attitudes and behaviors, people in western society show more individualistic values. They put the importance of individual success above collective success, so they are more self-respecting and self-reliant and pursue personal happiness.

Most importantly, our "social value orientation" seems to extend to some basic aspects of our way of thinking. For example, in a collectivist society, people tend to think from a "holistic" perspective, paying more attention to interpersonal relationships and environmental situations, while in an individualistic society, people pay more attention to some independent factors.

Suppose you were asked to choose two related words from a group of nouns, such as "train, bus and railway track", what would you choose? This is the so-called "triple experiment" Westerners may choose "bus" and "train" because they are both means of transportation. Orientals with holistic thinking will say "train" and "rail" because they are concerned about the functional relationship between them, and one object is the necessary condition for another object to realize its function.

Although some people say that our social cognitive orientation may be influenced by genetic factors, the evidence so far shows that acquired factors have a greater influence. After investigation, it is found that within a generation, the children of Bangladeshi immigrants have begun to accept more individualistic thinking modes and less holistic cognitive thinking modes.

The root of the difference between eastern and western ways of thinking

How are the differences between eastern and western ways of thinking formed? A clear explanation is that with the passage of time, people in different regions gradually form a dominant outlook on life or philosophy of life. These different ways of observing the world have been deeply rooted in local cultural, literary, educational and political institutions.

The United States is a typical western country that pursues the spirit of individual struggle, Frederick? Jackson? Historians such as frederick Jackson turner believe that the expansion and exploration to the west have cultivated the independent spirit of the American people.

Another theory holds that the different thinking modes and mentality of the East and the West are the result of the reaction to bacteria in the process of evolution. Corey from the University of Warwick, UK? After analyzing the global epidemiological data, Corey Fincher and his colleagues found that the differences between individualism and collectivism in different regions seem to be related to the prevalence of diseases: the higher the infection rate of diseases, the more collectivism and the less individualism. Psychologists believe that when people are afraid of being infected with diseases, they seem to be more inclined to think collectively and take actions that are more in line with the collective interests.

But the most surprising theory comes from the farm theory. Thomas from the University of Chicago? Thomas Talhem recently studied 28 provinces in China, and found that thinking orientation seems to be related to local agricultural production methods.

Tajam said that the initial inspiration came from his own experience. During his trip to Beijing, he found that strangers were very active and enthusiastic: "When I eat alone, someone will always come forward to strike up a conversation." In the southern city of Guangzhou, people are more inclined to watch silently, fearing that taking the initiative to speak will offend him.

Therefore, Daham began to guess the causes of these two different mentalities. This difference seems to have nothing to do with poverty, wealth or modernization, but he noticed the difference between the main crops in the north and the south: the main crop in the south is rice, while the main crop in the north is wheat. "This difference is basically bounded by the Yangtze River." Tam said.

Compared with other types of agricultural production, rice cultivation needs more cooperation, because the complex irrigation system spans many fields.

Growing rice requires more cooperation. This is a labor-intensive production mode, which requires complex irrigation systems across many villages; In contrast, wheat cultivation requires only about half of the labor force, and the harvest depends on rainfall rather than irrigation, which means that farmers can take care of crops alone without cooperating with their neighbors.

Can these differences explain the differences between collectivism and individualism? Tam cooperates with scientists in China. They tested the overall thinking mode of more than 65,438+0,000 students from different rice and wheat producing areas, and asked the subjects to draw their relationship diagrams with friends and colleagues. In groups that pay more attention to personality development, people usually highlight their status and draw themselves bigger than their friends and colleagues, while in groups that advocate collectivism, everyone in the relationship diagram is basically the same size, reflecting themselves and colleagues. "Americans tend to paint themselves the biggest." Tam said.

Sure enough, as he expected, people in wheat producing areas scored higher in personality development tests, while people in rice producing areas were more inclined to collectivism and holism in thinking. Tam said: "Even people in the same county, one village grows rice and one village grows wheat, can still find the difference of this cultural concept."

His test in India also got similar results, indicating that there are obvious differences in thinking patterns between people in wheat and rice growing areas. Of course, the people who have been investigated and tested are not directly involved in agricultural production, but the historical traditions of their region are still influencing and shaping their mentality and concepts. "It's some kind of cultural inertia," Tam said.

In addition, it needs to be emphasized that the difference between the eastern and western ways of thinking is only a broad and universal trend, but this difference is not as absolute as black and white. Delvaux Cox, an anthropologist at Edinburgh University? Delva Hussain and May Soddy participated in the study of Bangladeshi groups in London. He pointed out that there are many long-standing connections between eastern and western countries, which means that some people will cross the boundary between the two ways of thinking, and factors such as age and social status will also have a certain impact on people's cognitive model.