Cultural Differences in Everyday Causal Reasoning: Evidence that Westerners are Logical Isolaters whereas Easterners are Analogical Modelers

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.

Keywords: Culture, causation, counterfactuals, analogical reasoning, philosophy of science