No. 110/2019

I t is always a risky undertaking to spend time studying in another country. We set off with a suitcase full of expectations, pre­ judices and at least two decades of experi- ence in a different cultural environment which often unconsciously shape our behaviour, val- ues and preferences. “An intercultural encoun- ter can thus be extremely enriching, reaching beyond our previous horizons,” says Alexan- der Thomas, emeritus professor of social psy- chology at the University of Regensburg. “But it can also lead to confusion and failure.” How we experience a host country and get along there depends on a raft of factors. Our perception of people and events alone is already much more individualised than we assume. Even fundamentals like colours and forms can be differently perceived, although we all use our retina’s rods and cones to see them; the biology of sensory perception has a universal basis. “But what we see is the result of a brain process which is shaped before we are born and constantly updated by our expe- riences,” explains Bence Nanay, philosopher at the University of Antwerp. ONE PERSON SEES FISH, THE OTHER AIR BUBBLES Just how big the differences in perception can be are demonstrated by comparative cultural experiments. Researchers have discovered, for example, that the Himba – an indigenous pop- ulation of northern Namibia – perceive the Ebbinghaus Illusion quite differently from the average European. This optical illusion shows two identical circles. One is surrounded by smaller circles, the other by larger circles. The latter appears to be considerably smaller than its twin. But the Himba are not hoodwinked by what is going on round about. They recog- nise fairly accurately that both central circles have the same radius. And there is an under- lying cause for this: in the language of the Himba there is no word for circle. Round objects hardly play any role in their everyday life at all. As many studies have now shown, the visual perception of Asians and people from western cultures diverges significantly, too. “Whereas a Westerner just sees a fish in an aquarium and thus merely the central object, Asians also see additional details in the vicin- ity, such as bubbles rising to the surface and the plants in the water,” as Nanay illustrates. The reason for this holistic perception, accord- ing to experts like the American psychologist Richard Nisbett, is their collectivist social sys- tem in which “we” is much more important than “I”. Here in Germany, on the other hand, individualism is dominant. WE LIKE WHAT WE ARE USED TO “In the course of our lives, people who are close to us influence us. First our parents, then the circle of close contacts gets bigger and what we consider to be normal establishes itself,” Nanay explains. The more often we see, hear or experience something, the more likely it is that we will develop a preference for it. This even happens in a seminar situation: the more often people have met on a course – even if they have never spoken to one another – the more they like each other. Most of all, we like the things we are used to. This connection is so well documented that it is described in countless psychology textbooks as the mere-exposure effect. “The mere-exposure effect leads to a situation in which visiting researchers from abroad may be quite curious and open about our health system, but still miss the familiar structures in their own coun- PROFESSOR DR BENCE NANAY was granted the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation’s Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award in 2016 for his achievements in the philo- sophy of perception, aesthetics and philosophy of mind. A pro- fessor of philosophy at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, he is also co-director of the Centre for Philosophical Psycho- logy. Working at the intersection of philosophy, psychology and cognitive science, Nanay’s spe- cial interest focusses on aesthe- tics as a philosophy of per­ ception. Photos: Getty Images/Georg Simmerstatter Photography (li.), David Robert Evans The more often we see, hear or experience something, the more likely it is that we will develop a preference for it.” “ 25 HUMBOLDT KOSMOS 110/2019