Cultural differences in preference for enthymemes: A cross-cultural study of the Japanese, Koreans, Taiwanese, French, and British.

Abstract

This study tests the distinction between Westerners’ low-context culture and Easterners’ high-context culture using two measures: the acceptance of enthymeme compared to its syllogism and the sensitivity to the familiar major premise that is implicit in enthymemes. This study investigated whether Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, French, and British participants preferred an enthymeme to its syllogism, and whether they were sensitive to the familiarity. Participants were given a syllogism (Modus Tollens type) and enthymeme and were asked to rate them on a 7-point scale based on which was more persuading, logical, natural, poetic, and wise. Results show that Easterners did not prefer enthymemes to syllogisms more than Westerners; however, the sensitivity to familiarity was greater among the Japanese, Koreans, and French. Japanese, Korean, and French languages are grouped into high-context languages. Sensitivity to familiarity is influenced by language characteristics.