Pointing the way to a fictional place: A study of direction giving in Iran and England

This study was concerned with the popular impression that Near Easterners will give directions to a place even if they do not know its whereabouts. It confirmed the hypothesis that significantly more Iranians than English people will give directions to a fictional place, and offered experimental evidence to show that this cultural difference could not be explained in terms of the greater mischievousness of Iranians. Instead, it was suggested that the difference in behaviour between Iranians and English people could be traced to a difference in value systems. The study examined direction giving, avoidance of the experimenters, and time spent with experimenters in relation to nationality, sex and social class.