How do we learn to look at the world from a new cultural perspective? In this episode Joseph Shaules and Ishita Ray argue that expanding our circle of empathy is more difficult than it might seem. Empathizing across cultures is effortful and can make us question our values and identity. Listen as Sanne Bosma, Emre Seven, Liu Liu and Torhild Liane Harr Skarnes share stories of their empathic adventures.
In this episode, Ishita Ray and Joseph Shaules explore reasons for cultural misunderstanding. We learn about cultural blind spots, and the “cognitive cascade” that can lead us to misjudge foreign situations. We hear stories of misunderstanding by Emre Seven (about the expression Inshallah), and Liu Liu (about counting toilets!) and Sane Bosma—who talks with her partner Armen about overcoming misunderstanding in an intercultural relationship.
What does it mean to “learn” a culture? In this episode, Joseph Shaules and Ishita Ray talk about how insights from cultural psychology can help us answer this question. We learn about embodied culture, predictive processing, and how our intuitive mind learns new patterns of perception. We find out the four key insights that we need for deep cultural learning. This is Part 2 of the Beyond WEIRD episode.
Whether in the schoolyard or on the battlefield, dividing the world into “us” vs. “them” comes naturally to humans. In this episode, Joseph Shaules and Ishita Ray explore “otherness” through stories and brain-mind science. Ishita shares her father’s experience as an “other”—and the wisdom he passed on to her. We learn about the inspiring vision of Rabindranath Tagore, and find that research into empathy provides hints at how we can look beyond . . . and look into . . . the differences that divide us. This episode was first published in October, 2023.
Intercultural education is sometimes criticized as being too WEIRD–Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic. But what does that mean? In this two-part episode, Joseph Shaules, Ishita Ray and Emre Seven trace the origins of the term WEIRD to the work of Joseph Henrich. He argues that people from WEIRD countries are psychological outliers. We hear Liu Liu reflect on the challenges of adjusting to WEIRD psychology, and discuss how intercultural education has been influenced by its WEIRD roots.
