"Close nations / distant nations" multi-dimensional scaling analyses of cognitive maps of nations

This paper investigates how Japanese people see other nations and peoples of foreign countries by representing their perceptions on cognitive maps. 1 collected several types of data from university students: 1. Judged similarity among 26 nations/peoples (pile sort), 2. Preference data on 10 nations/peoples (paired comparisons), and 3. Exposure to foreign nations/people such as experiences of foreign travel and having foreign friends. By analyzing the judged similarity data using Multidimensional Scaling, it was found that the respondents categorized nations/peoples based on three dimensions: "Western vs. non-Western (White vs. non-White)," "psychological distance," and "geography." Those who have experienced traveling aboard had a tendency to place less weight on the "Western vs. non-Western (White vs. non-White" dimension in their cognition. Preference data showed that some preferred Asian people, while others favored Western people; however, almost every respondent revealed his/her unfamiliarity with Islamic and African people.