39. Culture Affects How People Think

What's noticed most? Cows or background?

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• Caption: Photo by listverse.com
• Caption: Photo from shutterstock.com

Culture influences thoughts!

• Answers toward the previous question tend to deviate depending on where you are from
• West = Individualistic ; East = Relationships
• People from the West tend to focus on a main or dominant foreground object, while people from East Asia pay more attention to context and background
• In East Asia, cultural norms emphasize relationships and groups, thus they pay more attention to context
• Western society is more individualistic, thus they learn to pay attention to focal objects

To Sum It Up...

• People from different geographical regions and cultures respond differently to relative images
• East Asia people notice and remember the background and context more than people in the West do
• Conduct audience research in multiple locations if designing for a multi-cultural and multi-geographical regions
• Be wary of overgeneralizing results!
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• Caption: In any culture, the cow still goes moo. (Photo from pinterest.com)