Culture Affects Perception
What Is Culture?
“Culture is the whole complex of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features that characterizes a society or a group. It includes creative expressions, community practices and material or built forms.”
Culture is the “lens” through which you view the world. It is central to what you see, how you make sense of what you see, and how you express yourself.
How we perceive things is largely affected by our judgment skills, preconceived notions, attitude, and emotions. These factors are closely linked with our culture. In perceiving something as good or bad, our biases play a role and so does our way of thinking. In judging something as easy or difficult, our attitude and our motivation levels play a key role. Our culture determines the structure of our thinking, which influences our perceptions.
People who belong to cultures that promote individualism tend to look at only the main aspects of a situation, while those of a culture that promotes collectivism tend to consider even the minor details. American culture which is predominantly individualistic, promotes giving freedom of choice to children since a young age. The Japanese culture which promotes collectivism, rather encourages the parents/elders to make choices for their children. This is an example of how parenting is perceived in contrasting ways due to the differences in culture. Similarly, people of Eastern cultures perceive success as being a collective effort, while those of the American culture perceive it as the fruit of individual effort.
Research has shown that our culture does play a role in the way our brain processes information and reacts to stimuli. That’s one reason why culture is so important.
