Get the PDF FlyerMonday September 26, 2005
4:00 p.m.
St. Paul’s College – MacKirdy Hall (Room 201)
Parking is readily available free of charge at St. Paul's College
A reception will follow the lecture
The Geography of Thought:
How Asians and Westerners Think Differently…And Why
Richard E. Nisbett
University of Michigan
Westerners are inclined to be analytic in their approach to reasoning and perception. They focus on some central object or person, attend to its properties, categorize it, and apply rules to it, including the most formal of rules, namely logic. East Asians are inclined to be holistic in their reasoning and perception. They focus more broadly on the field in which central objects are located, they attend to relationships and similarities among elements in the field, they are less concerned with categories and rules, and they rely on dialectical reasoning. Both social organization and nature of the physical environment likely contribute to these differences and to perceptual differences that complement the cognitive differences.
Professor Nisbett is the Theodore M. Newcomb Distinguished University Professor at the University of Michigan. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and has won the William James Fellow award from the American Psychological Association for Distinguished Scientific Achievements and the Donald T. Campbell Award from the Society of Personality and Social Psychology for Distinguished Research in Social Psychology. His most recent books include, Culture of Honor: The Culture of Violence in the South and The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently…and Why. Professor Nisbett was Ziva Kunda's graduate research advisor at the University of Michigan.
The Ziva Kunda Memorial Lecture is presented annually by the Department of Psychology to honour an outstanding scholar, friend and mentor who passed away in February 2004.
