Der kulturelle Einfluss auf das gesellschaftliche Verhalten und die kognitive Wahrnehmung der Menschen

Abstract

Cultural Influence on Human Social Behavior and Cognitive Perception

The intercultural facet of language influences the social behavior and human cognitive perception. In the course of the socialization process, individuals acquire a mother tongue, a value system, a world view and a way of behaving. They are influenced and deeply shaped by the culture in which they grow up. This culture will determine their behavior, their worldview and their perceptions or their personality and identity. This fact entails that successful intercultural communication requires both linguistic as well as cultural competence. The aim of this paper is to shed light on the intercultural influence of human social behavior and cognitive perception. It can be concluded that due to increasing mobility and international exchange, intercultural encounters have become a reality in our world today. These encounters between people from different cultural contexts often bring difficulties for the members of different communities with different cultures. These intercultural interactions do not always lead to mutual understanding despite language proficiency. They lead under certain circumstances to conflicts because the existing divergences among interlocutors in terms of prejudices, attitudes, value judgements. In order to behave correctly and appropriately in such situations, one needs intercultural competence. The cultural influence on human social behavior and cognitive perception is striking in intercultural encounters. Forms of greeting, eating habits and behaviors are culture-related. All humans eat because it is a biological need, but what do they eat? when do they eat? and how they eat? differs from a culture to another. Therefore, cultural knowledge is of central importance in a foreign language lesson. Cultural studies can be a bridge between language and culture. Elements about the target culture can be used to build a bridge between the cultures and reduce prejudices. This is the only way to break down stereotypes and preconceived notions and to raise the students’ consciousness about cultural aspects of a particular language.