Description, Interpretation, Evaluation

Origins

The D.I.E. exercise was inspired by the work of general semantics. Alfred Korzybski, considered the founder of general semantics, wrote on reports, inferences, and judgments, outlining distinctions among these cognitive processes. Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa popularized Korzybski’s ideas in the mid- to late 20th century, bringing concepts from general semantics into the vernacular, including notable quotes such as Korzybski’s “the map is not the territory.” Furthermore, he warned that making immediate judgments inhibits our analytical process.

Building on and adapting these ideas, Janet Bennett and Milton Bennett, working in a group of intercultural workshop facilitators, developed the original D.I.E. at the University of Minnesota Speech Communication Department in 1973. Designed to teach participants how to suspend judgment while interacting across cultures, the exercise has been refined over the past decades by a variety of authors and is arguably the most widely used intercultural exercise worldwide.

Pedagogical Goals

To develop intercultural competence, individuals need to cultivate curiosity, cognitive flexibility, and nonjudgmentalness. Curiosity has been labeled the keystone of intercultural competence, strengthening as it does other competencies by its presence. The curious interculturalist has more opportunity to explore new situations and more likelihood of correctly interpreting cultural differences appropriately. Cognitive flexibility, or frame of reference shifting with empathy, is known to be a prime mediator for reducing prejudice and stereotypes. Finally, nonjudgmentalness allows the interculturalist to approach new learning as free of biases and stereotypes as possible in order to interpret unfamiliar situations with cultural humility.

These core competencies are challenging to develop. However, with thoughtful, well-sequenced training, they can be cultivated. The D.I.E. can provide skills practice for each of them, with guidance from the teacher to foster greater flexibility in interpretation.

The Process

The basic D.I.E. process involves selecting ambiguous objects and photographs for guided discussion. The exercise involves four steps.

First, the participants describe what they see, without any interpretations or evaluations. For example, they may see an object that is clear plastic, square at the bottom, round on top, made of four pieces, with a screw-top lid, approximately 4 inches high and 2 inches wide. By allowing the participants to continue describing the object for [Page 221]5 to 10 minutes, the facilitator elicits many details that would ordinarily be ignored, just as such details are ignored when observing other cultures.

In the second step, the participants are asked to interpret the object: What might this strange thing be? What is it used for? With the above mysterious object in mind, they might suggest that it is a trap for bugs, a container for spices, a puzzle for children, or a candleholder, for instance. They are encouraged to be as imaginative as they can be in order to promote cognitive flexibility. How many interpretations can they create?

The third and final step requires evaluation of the object. Using selected interpretations, the facilitator asks for both a positive and a negative evaluation of the object. For instance, if it is a candleholder, why is it an excellent candleholder? (It is clear, and we can see the flame.) Why is it an inferior candleholder? (It is plastic, and it will melt.) By exploring both positive and negative evaluations of the object, participants have to suspend their own judgment and shift into the frame of reference that someone else might hold. Many later adaptations of the D.I.E. attempt to find the most likely explanation; this version promotes curiosity and cognitive reframing by asking for multiple interpretations and evaluations.

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