In her book Little Soldiers, journalist Lenora Chu tells about a university professor in China who asks his students to put a paper bag over their heads and then gives them a minute to take off one object that they don’t need. The students take off all sorts of objects: eyeglasses, jewelry, shoes, etc. Almost none of them do the very first thing that occurred to me when I read about the experiment: take off the paper bag.

After conducting this experiment on thousands of students, the professor says that only three out of a hundred Chinese students respond to the prompt by removing the paper bag.

IQ is important, but other things vastly outweigh its importance.

4 responses to “Cultural Differences”

  1. Occasional Reader Avatar
    Occasional Reader

    Hmm. I suppose it depends on how its worded/ presented. This almost seems a bit “gotcha” to me. If, as part of an experiment, I was willing put a bag over my head (something I might refuse to do at the outset), then I would likely assume that the entire procesure relied on keeping the paper bag on? So if I was told to take off one unneeded thing, I might even take it as preparation for the experiment and would just remove whatever made the bag more comfortable.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar

      If you are considering refusing to follow instructions from the start, the rest of the experiment is unnecessary. You are already obviously Western.

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      1. Occasional Reader Avatar
        Occasional Reader

        But, if I did go along with it (which isn’t out of the question), I would be “in for a penny/ in for a pound”. I believe I would assume that the bag was meant to stay on for the duration of the experiment .

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        1. Clarissa Avatar

          I would take off the paper bag before taking off anything else because of the word “unnecessary” in the task. Nothing on me is unnecessary. If I’m wearing it, I’m needing it.

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