🧠 Cultural Perception: East versus West

Where you grow up can literally change how you see the world.

Topic: Social and cultural norms

Researchers:
🎓 Takahiko Masuda, University of Alberta
🎓 Richard E. Nisbett, University of Michigan

Who is this for? Strategists, Policy Makers, Marketing & Communication Leads, Change Managers, Designers, Researchers & Evaluation teams

🧠 Rethink how to change behaviours

👉🏾 In individualistic cultures, focus on direct benefits to the individual or family.
👉🏾 In collectivistic cultures, highlight the broader value for the family and community.
👉🏾 Tailor messaging through a cultural perception lens, remember what works for some people may not work for all.

📚 Evidence-Based Insight

A fascinating study compared how Japanese and American participants perceive their surroundings, revealing surprising differences in cultural cognition. This research highlights how cultural background shapes attention and perception, offering important lessons for designing behaviour change strategies.

Journal article: Masuda, T., & Nisbett, R. E. (2001). Attending holistically versus analytically: Comparing the context sensitivity of Japanese and Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(5), 922–934.

Read the abstract (full paper paywalled) – https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.81.5.922

📊 Results

• American participants quickly focused on central objects (e.g., the fish).

• Japanese participants paid more attention to the entire scene, noticing background details.

• Americans were more object-focused, while Japanese considered context and relationships.

🧪 Footnote on experimentation

Evidence evolves over time and rarely apply universally—so start with a small experiment. You can access our FREE Toolkit, thoughtfully designed to help you solve behaviour change challenges.

🧠 Behavioural by Design Masterclass: Join our in-person or online Masterclass for a hands-on guide to apply behavioural science in your policy, strategy, communications and design challenges.