Culture and Perception
There is a semi fervent debate in psychology about whether basic psychological findings are universal or vary based on a variety of other factors, one of these being culture. Much of the research on cultural differences has been done on comparisons between East Asians and European Americans.
One of my favorite studies looks at how East Asians and European Americans differ in perceptual styles by looking at art. Researchers (Masuda, Gonzalez, Kwan, & Nisbett, 2005) coded thousands of paintings from both cultures and found that consistently the horizon line was painted higher and the people in portraits were much smaller in Asian paintings relative to Westerns ones. This same pattern emerges when Asian participants were asked to draw a scene. When asked to choose the most aesthetically pleasing photograph, either one where the main figure is larger or smaller, Asians picked the smaller figure with the larger background.
(Above: Chinese landscape, Below: American landscape)
Why is this the case? It's because Westerners, who think analytically, tend to perceive the world as made up of separate objects, whereas Easterners, who think more holistically, tend to perceive everything as being interconnected. In this sense, a higher horizon allows you to see more of a scene and the subjects' relation to each other. A lower horizon directs the viewer's attention to specific objects. A portrait where the central figure is larger focuses attention on the subject, while one where the central figure is smaller allows the painter to incorporate elements of the environment or background into the painting.
(Left: Chinese portrait, Right: American portrait)
Analytic thinkers (Westerners) show field independence, that is, they are able to separate the subject from the background. In contrast, holistic thinkers (Easterners) show field dependence, where objects are tied to their backgrounds.
