In China,cultural differences arose from growing rice or wheat.Different thinking styles between northern and southern Chinese people can trace their roots to rice fields and wheat fields. Rice farming promotes a holistic focus on distinguishing relationships among people and objects,and valuing others as much as or more than oneself, say psychologist Thomas Talhelm of the University of Virginia and his colleagues.Holistic thinking among many modem Chinese people partly reflects regional histories of building communal irrigation systems and cooperatively planting and harvesting rice fields over thousands of  years. They draw that conclusion based on studies of college students from regions with different agricultural practices.Students from southern and central China's rice.growing provinces think holistically, even though they have probably never farmed rice,Talhelm's group reports.In contrast,students from northern and central Chinese provinces that have specialized in wheat growing exhibit a preference for abstract analysis and self over others,the scientists find.Wheat is less labor-intensive to grow than rice,SO farmers can plant and harvest crops without much help from neighbors.Analytical,individualistic thinking is not more common among students from richer Provinces, contrary to the argument that this attitude springs from modernization. "Rice theory might explain why East Asia is so much less individualistic than expected based on its wealth, " Talhelm says. Talhelm,s team tested 1,162 Chinese students,who Viewed lists of three items,such as a rabbit,a dog and a carrot. For each list,students chose two items that belonged together. Earlier research found that analytical thinkers often group items according to categories,so rabbits and dogs go together.Holistic thinkers tend to 1ook for relationships,such as rabbits eating carrots. Students from rice-growing areas made an average of around seven to nine holistic matches of 10 possible matches,compared with roughly f1ve to seven holistic matches for those from Wheat-growing areas. Talhelm's team also analyzed national statistics in China from 1 996,2000 and 2010 and found a higher divorce rate and a greater number of successful patents for new inventions in wheat-growing provinces than in rice-growing provinces. That trend is in line with the ides that analytical thinking develops both individualism and creativity. People who think holistically probably  _  .
come from wheat--growing areas 1ive in northern and central China rely more on themselves think of others before themselves