Reading Material 13　Perception Can Be Linked to Culture (1)

Does culture affect perception? Do people from different cultures see things differently? Yes.This answer may fly in the face of philosophical tenets which hold that there is one ultimate reality.However，psychologists have indeed found that the susceptibility to optical illusions is culture-dependent，even rooted in brain structure.This would suggest that culture also shapes brain organization and interpretation of information.

Segall and his co-workers discovered in 1966 that architecture determines or affects to what extent people will perceive certain illusions.People living in environments with no angled roads，no rectangular buildings，no houses with sloping or angled roofs are less likely to see the famous Müller Lyer illusion.Westerners are far more likely to perceive this illusion than，say，native Americans or Africans.(See the figure on the left)．

Similarly，people from cultures with no，or fewer 2-dimensional cues for depth like those we encounter every day in drawings and which convey an illusion of depth are less likely to see illusions of this kind when viewing our drawings.

The Müller-Lyer illusion:the two parallel lines are the same length，but the left one appears shorter.