News Psychology

Farming practices have shaped thinking styles

In China, growing rice versus wheat has sown long-lasting cultural differences

AS YE SOW  Chinese people from wheat-growing provinces are more individualistic and analytical than those from rice-cultivating provinces, raising the profile of farming practices as influences on thinking styles, a new study suggests. 

Roy Cheung/FLICKR (left), Charlie fong/Wikimedia Commons (right)

By Bruce Bower

- More than 2 years ago

Differing thinking styles between Chinese people and Westerners, as well between northern and southern Chinese people, can trace their roots to rice paddies and wheat fields, a new study suggests.