Analytic Culture in the U.S. Intelligence Community (PDF) - CIA

CHAPTER SIX
have different histories, languages, customs, educational practices, and cultures
and, therefore, must think differently from one another.
The problem, however, is that the cognitive process of understanding or
even recognizing that there are cultural and cognitive differences is not intuitive
at all. Intuition is the act of immediate cognition, that is, perceiving something
directly through the use of culturally dependent heuristics and cognitive
patterns accumulated through a lifetime without requiring the use of rational
or formal processes. This effort appears doomed to failure, because “trying to
think like them” all too often results in applying the logic of one’s own culture
and experience to try to understand the actions of others, without knowing that
one is using the logic of one’s own culture. This, however, does not have to be
the case. Through acculturation and the use of specific strategies, tools, and
techniques, it is possible to combat the effects of ethnocentrism without trying
to “think like them.” This text includes two short case studies on failures to
recognize ethnocentrism, both drawn from the author’s own experience and
told from his perspective. These failures are then examined with the goal of
developing strategies and techniques to combat ethnocentric bias.
Case Study One: Tiananmen Square
At the time of the prodemocracy protests of the Chinese students and, to a
lesser extent, workers, between April and June of 1989, I too was a college
student. I mention this because American college students and Chinese college
students tend to perceive themselves in very different ways, and they are
perceived by their societies as having very different social roles. Chinese students
perceive themselves as having moral authority, and they are perceived
as controlling social capital and possessing public status. There is a cultural
norm in China that students, as the future elite, have a morally superior role in
society. I remember thinking at the time that, with the obvious exception of
those in power, who risked losing their privileged positions, any “rightminded”
person in China would support democracy. A movement for democratic
reform would liberalize the policies of a repressive regime, encourage
personal freedom, and give the Chinese people a voice in their lives.
When the university students went on strike and took over Tiananmen
Square, the popular view in the United States, reflected in the US media, was
that they were college students protesting for democratic reform. There were
images of thousands of students rallying and camping out on and around the
statue of the People’s Heroes. Throughout the square, banners and posters
from universities supported democracy and freedom. The statue of the Goddess
of Democracy erected by the demonstrators looked very much like our
Statue of Liberty. Labor groups offered to join the students, people paraded in
front of the Great Hall of the People, and citizens donated blankets and food.
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