RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The geography of thinking
JF Clinical Medicine
JO Clin Med
FD Royal College of Physicians
SP 343
OP 345
DO 10.7861/clinmedicine.2-4-343
VO 2
IS 4
A1 John Mole
YR 2002
UL http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/2/4/343.abstract
AB People in different cultures are taught to think differently. How we gather information, process, rationalise, justify and communicate our ideas is culturally determined. Europe is divided between the pragmatic, inductive thinking of North Sea cultures and the rationalist thinking of the rest of the continent. Westerners and Asians have different mental skills and capacities deriving from the nature of written and spoken language, the relative importance of learning by rote or investigation and the social environment. Western children are expected to ask questions and test ideas for themselves, while in Asia it is unacceptable to question anyone senior in age or authority, including teachers. Westerners base thinking on reason; Asians base thinking on harmony. Whenever people of different cultures work together, different ways of thinking create barriers to understanding and communication. This applies to many spheres of work, including the medical profession.