Global Visuals: A Picture is worth 1000 words

Global Visuals: Is a Picture Worth a Thousand Words?

INTRODUCTION

While cultural theorists have long held that culture shapes the way we communicate

(Barthes, 1972; Hall, E.T., 1976; Fiske, 1989) and sociologists have theorized that culture

shapes the way we receive messages (Hall, S., 1974; Williamson, 1978), it is only recently

that cognitive psychologists have begun to scientifically study the way culture shapes how

people process information and literally “see” the world (Nisbett, 2003).

In his recent book, The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think

Differently . . . and Why Richard Nisbett (2003) states, “the characteristic thought processes

of Asians and Westerners differs greatly” and that “Westerners and Asians literally see

different worlds” (2003, p. 12).

In this paper we test Nisbett’s (2003) theory that Asians view visual images quite

differently from Westerners. By asking respondents in three countries—the USA, India, and

Singapore—what they see in the visuals used in global ads, we hoped to better understand

how culture shapes what people see in global images.

LITERATURE REVIEW

How Culture Shapes Cognitive Processing

Over the past few decades cognitive psychologists have begun to scientifically test how

culture shapes visual perception. Richard E. Nisbett (2003) of the University of Michigan,

Ann Arbor, used eye-tracking cameras to study how American students and Chinese

students looked at visual images. Nisbett and his colleagues were able to discern that

Westerners paid more attention to the focal object in a photograph, while Asians attended

more broadly—to the overall surroundings and to the relations between the object and the

field. The University of Michigan research team asked 25 Americans of European descent


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and 27 native Chinese to view a series of pictures, while they recorded what the participants’

eyes focused on. The Americans looked more at the foreground object, such as a tiger in the

center of the photo, while the Chinese spent more time studying the background and taking

in the whole picture. In the split second after each participant first sees the picture, the

Americans looked at the focal object in the picture 20 percent longer than the Chinese, and

their eyes darted around much less than the Chinese. When asked to describe what they each

saw, the Americans noted the tiger while the Chinese were more concerned with the

relationship between the foreground and the background (Nisbett, 2003).

Ji, Nisbett and Peng (2000) found that when asked to describe what they saw in visuals,

East Asians paid more attention to the social world than did Westerners. Cohen and Gunz

(2002) indicated that Asians had a more holistic view of things, and were more concerned

with the social context as compared to North Americans. In a study of photographs, Nisbett

(2003) asked Japanese students and American students what they recalled after seeing eight

underwater vignettes that had one or more “focal” fish in the foreground and contained

background objects such as plants, rocks, or bubbles. The result showed that the Japanese

made references to background elements and constructed relationships involving the fish

with background objects far more than the U.S. students. Nisbett (2003) concludes, “Asians

view the world through a wide-angle lens, whereas Westerners have tunnel vision” (p. 89).

In sum, he found that Easterners tended to pay more attention to the field (environment) than

did Westerners.

Nisbett (2003) traces the reasons that culture shapes perception back at least 2,000

years. One explanation he offered for the difference in the cognitive processing of visuals

was that Easterners live in a more socially complicated world and have to pay more attention


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to the context of a situation. Easterners, he found, appear to think more “holistically” paying

greater attention to context and relationship, relying more on experience-based knowledge

than on abstract logic, and showing more tolerance for contradiction. Westerners are more

“analytic” in their thinking, tending to detach objects from their context, to avoid

contradictions, and to rely more heavily on formal logic. According to Nisbett (2003), East-

West differences are a result of differing social and religious practices, different languages

and even different geography.

Modern Asians, like the ancient Chinese, view the world in holistic terms: They

see a great deal of the field, especially background events; they are skilled in

observing relationships between events; they regard the world as complex and

highly changeable and its components as interrelated; they see events as moving in

cycles between extremes; and they feel that control over events requires

coordination with others. Modern Westerners, like the ancient Greeks, see the

world in analytic atomistic terms; they see objects as discrete and separate from

their environments; they see events as moving in linear fashion when they move at

all; and they feel themselves to be personally in control of events even when they

are not (p. 109).

Thus, while there appear to be differences in the way cultures processes visual images,

much of the marketing and advertising industries rely on “ global visuals” to communicate

their message.

The global image

As Messaris (1997) has noted: “Increasingly, advertisers have come to see their target

audience as spanning entire regions—such as East Asia or western Europe or, indeed, the


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entire globe” (p.91). Advertising that crosses borders is not a new thing and if fact,

multinational brands like Coca Cola have been using globalized ads for the past fifty years.

However, the growth of global advertising has accelerated during the past two decades, due

in large part to the growth of global media. Starting in the 1980s, many countries began to

deregulate and privatize their media. This new economic liberalization greatly stimulated

the growth of global media corporations’ who could deliver advertising messages across

borders (Herman and McChesney, 1997). For example, the growth of women’s magazines

worldwide has been accomplished in large part by media conglomerates such as Condé Nast,

Hearst, Time Warner and Hachette Filipacchi. Titles like Elle, Vogue, Marie Claire, are now

available in local more than 30 country editions spanning the globe from New York to Kuala

Lumpur to Beijing. International women’s magazines are important for international

consumer product brands because these magazines are perceived as an effective vehicle for

reaching women who are the most desirable target for advertisers (Frith, 2004). And the

advertisements used in the these magazines are primarily visual since the lack of body copy

allows an advertiser to run the ad in multiple markets. In their article subtitled, “To

globalize, visualize” Kernan and Domzal (1993) point out that “”effective global ads are

never predominantly verbal” because “anyone can interpret a visual execution” (p.55).

Likewise, Ryan (2004) notes:

It’s no surprise that art work—usually photography—dominates most

communications. The fact is we are visually predisposed, and photography carries

the weight and power of most communications—in everything from websites to

magazines, identity materials to advertising (p. 19).


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In fact, cultural theorists have long argued that to understand how an advertisement

means (Stern, 1992) the audience must deconstruct the signs and symbols embedded in the

advertisement’s visual message, based on their cultural knowledge (Barthes, 1972; Hall, E.

T., 1976; Fiske, 1989; Frith, 1998). As Messaris states, “the idea that anyone can understand

a picture – is controversial” (p92). Nevertheless, in a globalized world, where a good picture

is worth a thousand words, the trend in advertising—worldwide—has to been to avoid

words (that can carry cultural content) and use visuals to carry the message.

Since the average magazine reader spends only about four or five seconds on each page

(Frith, 1998), pragmatic advertising practitioners have seen no reason to develop unique

executions for every culture. Today, Richard Nisbett’s (2003) work leads us to question

assumptions about how visual images are read in a globalized world.

Based on this recent research by cognitive psychologists, we attempted a two part study

to answer the research questions :

R1. When examining the visual images from ads do Westerners tend to focus on

the foreground objects while Asians tend to focus on the context?

R2. When examining the visual images from ads do Asians look for connections

or relationships between the objects or people more often than Westerners?

METHOD

Participants

The three participating universities in this study were from the USA, Singapore and

India. Students in first year mass communication courses were asked to participate in the

study. There were approximately 26 respondents from each country bringing the total to 78.

These universities were selected because English is the medium of instruction in each of


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these universities, yet students came from differing cultural backgrounds, that is, they were

either Asian or Western. These three countries form an interesting contrast as the USA is

Western, India is Eastern and Singapore exists at a crossroad between East and West. While

the population in Singapore is predominately Asian, this country has consistently scored as

the most “globalized” society in Foreign Policy’s annual survey of globalized nations. Thus,

the researchers were interested to see whether Singaporeans interpreted the visuals from an

Eastern or Western perspective.

A faculty member from the School of Communication and Information at Nanyang

Technological University served as a contact person. Copies of the survey booklets along

with testing instructions were sent to the collaborating faculty members in India and the

USA. The same protocol was used at all three universities.

Procedure

Stage 1. Collection of Visual Images

Visually dominant advertisements were selected from a 2002 issue of Elle magazine

which had been published in Singapore. Elle magazine was chosen as it is one of the most

global media because a large proportion of the content and advertising are standardized and

used worldwide. It is currently published in over 36 country editions globally (including

Singapore, India and the USA) and the images in the magazine are seen by millions of

viewers. Though the advertisements were visually dominant to begin with, all text was

removed from the ads to be certain that respondents were exposed only to the visual form

(Morgan, 2005). The objective was to have subjects respond to global visual images, not

advertisements per se. Thus, images were chosen from an issue of Elle magazine that was

four years old so respondents would not have seen the image recently or relate to it


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immediately as “an advertising image”. In Nisbett’s (2003) research he had tested Chinese

and American students responses to an underwater photo, so in addition to the ad images,

one underwater photograph was used as a control in this study.

Stage II. Development of booklet and survey directions

The treatment was the presentation of global images and directions in a booklet format.

For this paper we will discuss finding on two of the images: an image from a Calvin Klein

perfume ad, Eternity, and another from a women’s handbag advertisement by Furla.

Appendix A shows the image that survey respondents were given and Appendix B shows

the entire ad.

Respondents in each country were given a survey booklet containing the visual images

and demographic questions. The respondents were allowed to view and respond to each

image for a total of 3 minutes. The directions “describe what you see in the visual” was

included on each page of the survey booklet. In addition, respondents were instructed that

“There is no right or wrong way to do this survey,” they could either list what they saw or

write a narrative.

Stage III. Analysis of qualitative data and development of coding scheme

In analyzing the qualitative responses to the images, the researchers were interested in

what object or objects respondents noted, what types of words they used to describe what

they saw, and how respondents from different cultures described what they saw.

Preliminary analysis showed that respondents used nouns to describe the objects,

prepositional phrases to describe the context, and analytic words to describe the details.


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FINDINGS

Underwater Photo

The first photo was an underwater color picture of a turtle taken by one of the

researchers. We tried to replicate Nisbett’s underwater photo of fish. We expected that

Americans would describe the turtle first as it is the foreground object and that Asians would

see it as “an underwater” photo thus noting the context “underwater” context first.

India Singapore USA Noted the turtle first

50%

66%

96% Noted underwater “context” first

50%

33%

4%

INDIA

Thick descriptions of nature and wanting to be one with nature came across in most

of the writing samples. Respondents used many descriptive words to explain what they saw.

The sea was “beautiful”, the turtle was either “languishing” or “swimming” and the photo

was “mysterious”. The water was described as “green and blue”.


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There was frequent use of the first person to describe the photo: “I feel…: or “I

think the turtle…” Thinking beyond the picture, there was a tendency for Indian respondents

to try to relate to how the turtle was feeling and conjecture or make a story about it such as,

“the turtle may be hungry and looking for food”, it is “searching for something” or “it’s

lonely” or “it is isolated from other creatures” or even, “surrounded by enemies”.

This inclination to make and tell stories could be routed back to the fact that India is

a country rich in traditional folktales and mythology is a part of everyday life. Epics like the

Ramayana and the Mahabharata have been read to children and passed on from generation

to generation. The formation of a connection between the foreground and background was

often attempted by using relationship phrases such as: “over the coral”, “in the ocean”, “in

the sea grass”, “in nature or the environment” and many noted that “the turtle was not alone

as there were other fish in the background”.

SINGAPORE

Fifty percent of the Singapore respondents chose to “list” what they saw rather than

writing a narrative. Almost all the respondents described this as a “sea-turtle” first and then

as an underwater scene. This is interesting because “sea” is a context word. In the USA,

respondents identified it as a “turtle” without the word “sea”.

Many Singaporeans described the colors in the photo- the turtle (brown) the corals

(white) and the water (blue-green). The description of the turtle was more detailed than

those written by Indians. While Indians tended to related their descriptions to how they felt

or how they thought the turtle felt, Singaporeans described the surface features of the turtle

like the shell, the scales and emphasized colors/ patterns/ shapes and sizes.


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Some tried to create meaning by describing the turtle as: “maybe it’s resting” or

“maybe it is looking for food”. Only one or two respondents thought the turtle was “lonely”.

Abstract concepts like freedom peace and tranquility were also used to describe the visual.

USA

A high proportion of Americans began their response with the words, “I see”. All but

one saw a turtle first in the description. The details generally featured colors like: white

coral, red-brown turtle, and blue-green water. Only three respondents out of 26 went further

in their description of the turtle. One said “I would guess he is old” while another two said

the turtle was “maybe searching for food”. Generally speaking, the majority of Americans

limited their descriptions to the objects: turtle, coral and sea color. Many just listed these

objects. When descriptions were used they were shorter in length than the Indian or

Singaporean responses.

The Cologne Visual

The central figure in this picture is a woman. She is lying what seems to be a bed or sofa

surrounded by what appears to be her family. We were interested to see if respondents

across cultures saw a family.


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INDIA

Almost all Indian respondents said they saw a “happy family” in this picture. They

wrote about the “father, mother, and child,” in that order (even though the woman and child

are featured in the foreground). Out of 26 respondents only three mentioned the woman first.

Indian society is patriarchal; thus this may explain the emphasis implied by noting the father

first (who was not what they actually saw first). Thus we see that the lexicon is skewed

toward naming the father first.

Also, all but one Indian respondent incorrectly identified the rabbit as a “dog” or

“puppy.” Having indoor pets is not the norm in India, and having a pet in the bed is unusual.

Again, with Indian respondents there was a tendency to go beyond what was shown, by

creating a story about how the family was probably “on a holiday” or “relaxing,” or by

noting that they “can’t live without each other.”

Feelings were also mentioned frequently, the family was “fond of the dog,” or they

“love each other.” Four respondents mentioned that they thought the photo might be for a

government ad for birth control. The slogan used by the government, “A small family is a

happy family,” was mentioned quite a few times.

SINGAPORE

Rather than identifying this as a family, the majority of Singapore respondents said they

saw “three people” or “two females and a male.” Less than a third of the respondents called

the group “a family.” In fact, some said the man and woman were “too young to have a

daughter that age” or “the woman is too gorgeous to have a child already.” A few said it was

a brother and two sisters, or a group of friends. Only one respondent used a descriptive word

like “love” to describe the picture, although a few said this was a picture of a “happy


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family.” Again, color was important to Singaporeans, and the fact that it was a black and

white picture was taken into account by most respondents.

Half the respondents said the animal was a dog and the other half identified it as a

rabbit. Again, household pets are not very common in highly urbanized Singapore.

Singaporeans scrutinized the details of the picture more than Indians. Three

Singaporeans identified the female model in the ad as Christy Turlington and another said

she was the supermodel for “Mabelline products.” One respondent correctly identified the

picture as being from a Calvin Klein ad.

USA

Like the Singaporeans, most respondents described the photo as showing three people,

or three models, or in one case, “three white people.” A few said it was two sisters and a

brother. Only one respondent mentioned that the photo was from an ad and she correctly

identified the advertiser as Eternity from Calvin Klein.

Interestingly, even though Americans are familiar with household pets, some

respondents thought the animal in the photo was a dog or a puppy, although the majority

identified it correctly as a rabbit.

American respondents did not use many adjectives. They tended to list precisely what

they saw. A typical response would be: “a male, a female, and a girl with a bunny. They are

all lying on a bed. They are wearing white clothes.”

Occasionally, a respondent would note, “They don’t look old enough to have a child, so

they must be friends.” There were some creative responses. One person named the bunny

Felix. A few suggested sexual themes, “the boy is thinking, get your sister out of here so we


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can have some fun time.” In the main, though, the Americans tended to list what they saw

in the photo without embellishing what they saw.

The Woman with Handbag image

The central figure in this picture is a woman. Her clothes and the background were

grayish blue and the handbag in the foreground was red. We expected Asian respondents to

first note the woman in the context of the room and her surroundings. We expected the

Americans would first note the red handbag.

INDIA

A majority of Indian respondents noted the woman on the bed as the central focus; only

four people mentioned the red bag in the foreground. The order of seeing the objects in this

picture was generally: woman–bed/room–bag. Indian respondents were the most

imaginative in describing the context. They constructed a narrative about the woman who


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was “tired” or was “resting.” There was a tendency to weave a story around her life, such as,

“She is tired from shopping for her family” or she “has been shopping, doing her duty for

her family.” Others noticed the things in the room and suggested, “She is posing for a

painter” (see canvas in background); one said, “She is dreaming of owning the red bag in the

foreground.” “I” figures again in these descriptions, in that respondents said often said, “I

think she looks tired.” Interestingly, none of the respondents noticed the faces in the

background or the colors of the walls. Some mentioned the messy sheets and overall

environment.

SINGAPORE

The first thing most Singaporeans listed was a woman lying horizontally on a sofa/bed.

They were very aware of the messy room and the patterns and prints on the dress worn by

the woman (“her skirt has polka dots”). Singaporeans are very interested in latest fashions,

so maybe that is why our respondents were so interested in the details. While many

mentioned the red bag, they described the room or context first, and then mentioned the red

bag.

Again, with Singaporeans there was a focus on colors, a number noted the contrast

between the dull blue/gray background and bright red handbag. One said, the “blue color of

background makes her seem depressed.”

A majority mentioned the details of the room, and a surprisingly large number noted the

eyes and faces seen on the wall behind the model, “behind the girl is a picture with a

woman’s face” or “I see faces on the wall.” Many noted the context, “the room looks too

small,” “a lazy model,” “she’s depressed,” “dilapidated house,” she’s “digging out her ear,”

or “shutting her ear,” “ugly/weird pose,” “it’s not her room.” Some thought it was an artistic


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photo, “a woman seducing an artist in his studio,” “a woman flirting with a photographer.”

Singaporeans were much more apt to see sexual innuendo in the visual than Indians. A

number noted the model was tugging at her skirt, and they viewed her as sensual, and

coquettish, and could see lust and sex appeal in the picture. Four of the Singaporeans said

this picture might be from an advertisement.

USA

The Americans generally listed exactly what they saw: “I see a woman lying on a bed,

there is a red shopping bag on the floor in front of her.” The Americans almost never

described the room in detail. None noticed the background faces on the walls, or mentioned

the patterns on the models dress. Most mentioned the red handbag in the foreground.

There were some creative answers like “she is a stressed-out college student who has

just failed a test and is trying to think herself out of this jam.” Another respondent asked, “is

her hand motioning and acting like a gun?” But generally the responses were direct and

straightforward. There were some sexual responses, “she’s waiting for more….” Six

respondents out of 26 noted that this might be the visual from an ad.

CONCLUSIONS

Culture shapes what we see. In this study we were able to determine that, for the most

part, Americans described the objects precisely as they appeared in the photos while Indians

embellished what they saw and used the photos to create stories. The Indians used more

emotional words while the Americans and the Singaporeans were more analytic. The Indians

turned the models into characters in their narratives; they told stories of lonely women

exhausted by their family duties. Singaporeans looked at the details of each photograph and

studied the pictures in greater depth than either the Indians or Americans.


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In terms of the research questions, we found that, when examining images the U.S.

respondents did tend to focus on the foreground objects, while Asians tended to describe the

context more often. Thus, our study confirmed Nisbett’s research. However, when looking at

these global images, the Singaporeans and Americans shared certain similarities.

Respondents from both cultures were analytic, but the Singaporeans described more details

in the visuals than did Americans.

In terms of the second research question, “will Asians look for connections or

relationships between the objects or people more often than Westerners?” we found that

Singaporeans and Indians did look for connections more often than Westerners. Indians and

Singaporeans tended to see the big picture while Americans described exactly what they

saw, without embellishment. Singaporeans’ descriptions were similar to those of the

Americans, but Singaporeans gave far more detail when describing what they saw.

Thus, while the findings of this study suggest that culture shapes the way we see things,

there certainly are other factors like the level of development or the level of income, which

might affect how people see an image. Possibly Singaporeans’ high income and globalized

media system makes them more globalized and thus, more conscious of things like fashion,

colors, poses, and the like. Certainly, of the cultures we studied, the Singaporeans were most

aware of the commercial aspects of the photos, and more often recognized that the photos

were possibly from ads, than respondents in the other cultures. In some cases, Singaporeans

were able to identify the model in the image by name (Christy Turlington is the female

model in the cologne image). There was also a level of sophistication evident in the answers

of both the Americans and Singaporeans in that both saw more commercial and sexual

connotation in the visuals than did the Indian students.


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Race and ethnicity also appears to shape what respondents see in visual images.

Americans described the people in the visuals in terms of race, such as “I see three white

people.” Likewise, in terms of demographic information, the Americans tended to use race

to describe their “nationality”. While Singaporeans responded to the question: “what is your

nationality?” as “Singaporean” and Indians answered, “Indian” many US respondents

answered by race. Of the 26 U.S. respondents, only 12 wrote “American.” Four wrote

“Caucasian,” three wrote that they were “White,” one wrote “Black,” one wrote “African

American,” and one wrote “Asian.” Four respondents left this line blank! Thus, race can be

a factor in how people interpret images.

Counter to what most advertisers might believe, this study suggests that there is no

single “preferred” meaning that can be successfully encoded into a visual image. Race,

class, gender, and cultural background do indeed affect how an advertisement means (Frith,

1998). But there may be ways of reading the visual message that are collectively shared.

Americans did seem to be the most direct in their descriptions, Indians the most imaginative,

and Singaporeans the most analytic.

One possible area for future research might be to look beyond concepts—of East and

West when studying how culture shapes visual perception. In fact, another way to interpret

cultural responses might be in terms of “Analytic” and “Descriptive” cultures. Americans

and Singaporeans appear to approach the visuals as “Analytic” readers of signs, while

Indians were “Descriptive.” Thus, East vs. West may not really be the key determinant of

how people read visuals images.


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Appendix A


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Image 1

Image 2


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Appendix B: The Original Ads

Global Visuals: A Picture is worth 1000 words

Documents