Billions of Sketches Reveal Hidden Cultural Variation in Human Concepts
Claims about the universality of human concepts have been predominantly assessed through linguistic similarity across languages and cultures. However, words are effective as communication devices because they compress rich experiential variation into shared conventions, potentially obscuring hidden individual and cultural differences in how concepts are mentally represented. Here, we analyse 2.6 billion human-made sketches of common concepts from 236 countries and territories to examine conceptual structure through people's visual imagination. Consistent with recent work on image-based cognition, we find that single concepts unfold into multiple distinct visual exemplars, revealing latent...
| Authors | Arianna Pera, Mauro Martino, Nima Dehmamy et al. |
|---|---|
| Primary category | cs.CY |
| Published | 8 July 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 31 July 2026 |
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