A Cross-Cultural Test of the “Carpentered World” Hypothesis Using The Ames Distorted Room Illusion

Abstract

The differing predictions of the nativist position of Pollack and the empiricist position of Segall et al., regarding illusion susceptibility were tested on a mixed- race, single-environment American sample and a mixed-environment, all-black Zambian sample using a hitherto untested instrument, namely a miniature model of the Ames Distorted Room illusion. Results indicated no significant effect of pigmentation within the American population, and evidence of a direct relationship between environmental “carpenteredness” and illusion-susceptibility in the Zambian sample, thus giving qualified support to the empiricist position. Age was found to be inversely related to susceptibility in all samples, and females overall were found to be significantly more illusion-susceptible than males.