Do ancient philosophies explain modern psychologies?

What is it about?

According to a widespread view in cultural psychology, psychological differences between modern Western and East Asian people reflect, and may derive from, differences between the ancient Greek and ancient Chinese philosophies. Here, we evaluate characterizations about the ancient traditions and the claim that they either predict or explain modern cross-cultural differences using an interdisciplinary approach. We conclude that these ancient philosophies neither predict nor explain modern cross-cultural psychological differences. Instead, we argue that modern views of ancient cultural traditions are likely distorted by contemporary social and psychological influences. We describe a few of the influences we believe scholars should be cautious of when analyzing the content of historical traditions.

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