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Article
The Soft Embodiment of Culture: Camera Angles and Motion through Time and Space
Psychological Science
  • Angela K. Y. LEUNG, Singapore Management University
  • Dov COHEN, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
9-2007
Abstract

Cultural assumptions about one's relation to others and one's place in the world can be literally embodied in the way one cognitively maps out one's position and motion in time and space. In three experiments, we examined the psychological perspective that Asian American and Euro-American participants embodied as they both comprehended and produced narratives and mapped out metaphors of time and space. In social situations, Euro-American participants were more likely to embody their own perspective and a sense of their own motion (rather than those of a friend), whereas Asian American participants were more likely to embody a friend's perspective and sense of motion (rather than their own). We discuss how these psychological perspectives represent the soft embodiment of culture by implicitly instantiating cultural injunctions (a) to think about how you look to others and to harmonize with them or (b) to know yourself, trust yourself, and act with confidence.

Identifier
10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01986.x
Publisher
SAGE
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01986.x
Citation Information
Angela K. Y. LEUNG and Dov COHEN. "The Soft Embodiment of Culture: Camera Angles and Motion through Time and Space" Psychological Science Vol. 18 Iss. 9 (2007) p. 824 - 830 ISSN: 1467-9280
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/kayeeangela_leung/17/