Cultural Differences in Everyday Causal Reasoning: Evidence that Westerners are Logical Isolaters whereas Easterners are Analogical Modelers. Gilbert, E. A. Technical Report ID 2463524, Social Science Research Network, Rochester, NY, July, 2014.
Cultural Differences in Everyday Causal Reasoning: Evidence that Westerners are Logical Isolaters whereas Easterners are Analogical Modelers [link]Paper  abstract   bibtex   
This paper begins by outlining the different values highlighted by Western and Eastern philosophies and how these values are reflected in cultural differences in psychology generally. Next it argues that these cultural differences in philosophy and cognition are reflected in reasoning about causation in particular. Specifically, Westerners rely heavily on counterfactual reasoning whereas Easterners may not. Finally, it proposes that instead of relying on counterfactual reasoning, Easterners are particularly likely to rely on analogical reasoning. To support this proposition, the paper provides preliminary empirical evidence suggesting that Easterners are more adept at analogical reasoning than Westerners.
@techreport{ gilbert_cultural_2014,
  address = {Rochester, NY},
  type = {{SSRN} {Scholarly} {Paper}},
  title = {Cultural {Differences} in {Everyday} {Causal} {Reasoning}: {Evidence} that {Westerners} are {Logical} {Isolaters} whereas {Easterners} are {Analogical} {Modelers}},
  shorttitle = {Cultural {Differences} in {Everyday} {Causal} {Reasoning}},
  url = {http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=2463524},
  abstract = {This paper begins by outlining the different values highlighted by Western and Eastern philosophies and how these values are reflected in cultural differences in psychology generally.  Next it argues that these cultural differences in philosophy and cognition are reflected in reasoning about causation in particular.  Specifically, Westerners rely heavily on counterfactual reasoning whereas Easterners may not. Finally, it proposes that instead of relying on counterfactual reasoning, Easterners are particularly likely to rely on analogical reasoning. To support this proposition, the paper provides preliminary empirical evidence suggesting that Easterners are more adept at analogical reasoning than Westerners.},
  number = {ID 2463524},
  urldate = {2014-10-26TZ},
  institution = {Social Science Research Network},
  author = {Gilbert, Elizabeth A.},
  month = {July},
  year = {2014},
  keywords = {Culture, Philosophy of Science, analogical reasoning, causation, counterfactuals}
}

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