Wednesday, September 05, 2007

What do you see in the photo?

I gotta run to the gym now but first check out this photo.

Now close your eyes and write down your first thoughts.

What do you see?

Now scroll down for the "answer"
















further...
















further....






OK.

Apparently according to Dr. Richard Nisbett in his book The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently - And Why (Paperback) - Americans, Germans, and Asians see the picture differently.

Americans are more likely to focus on the big fish, or the brightest fish. Japanese will talk about the background: “the water was green” or “there was a big rock,” as well as making more holistic comments such as “the green fish swam behind the seaweed.”

Professor Nisbett concludes that there is no such thing as universal cognition, people from different cultures actually think and see differently.

Americans like the big fish due to their general philosophy that the individual is something apart from his society, while in Asia, social cohesion is more emphasized - so they generally try and look at the bigger picture.

I'm not too sure about his findings - I saw the big fish first... and thought "THATS a big fish." I did notice the color of the yellow fishes... and the water was unusually blue. Nope didn't notice the rock or "peripheral" (lol) stuff.






4 comments:

Alan Lim said...

i thought of fish and chips with garlic aloli and pan fried scallops with a glass of shaw and smith sav blanc

Yauming YMC said...

dat grouper fish does look tasty yah?

Althea Wong said...

i just saw a big sea creature that i thought was a turtle with a school of small yellow fish swimming in the bluest sea. :) how does that translate?

Yauming YMC said...

Guess that shows we're not Japanese. :)