[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-83211-en":3,"doc-seo-83211-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},83211,962075114765,"Quinn","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_a8503ba1806abce46bf441b54a3ca4cd",8,"Research & Report","Billions of Sketches Reveal Hidden Cultural Variation in Human Concepts","Claims about universal human concepts have largely been tested using linguistic similarity across languages and cultures, where shared words can hide individual and cultural differences in how concepts are mentally represented. A 2.6-billion-sketch analysis from 236 countries examines conceptual structure through visual imagination, showing that single concepts unfold into multiple distinct visual exemplars. Visual embeddings diverge from word embeddings, strongest for haptic-related concepts, and sketch-based similarities track cultural distances more closely, highlighting modality-dependent universality.","Billions of Sketches Reveal Hidden Cultural Variation in  \nHuman Concepts  \narXiv :2607 .07267v 1 [ cs .CY] 8 Jul 2026  \nArianna Pera∗1, Mauro Martino∗2, Nima Dehmamy2 , Douglas Guilbeault3 , Luca Maria Aiello 1,†, Andrea Baronchelli4,†  \n1 IT University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark  \n2 MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, Cambridge, MA, USA  \n3 Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA  \n4 City St George’s University of London, London, UK  \nJuly 9, 2026  \n∗ These authors contributed equally to this work.  \n† Email: [luai@itu.dk](luai@itu.dk), [andrea.baronchelli.1@citystgeorges.ac.uk](andrea.baronchelli.1@citystgeorges.ac.uk)  \nClaims about the universality of human concepts have been predominantly assessed through linguistic similarity across languages and cultures 1–12 . However, words are effective as communication devices because they compress rich experiential variation into shared conventions2 ,8 ,13 , potentially obscuring hidden individual and cultural differences in how concepts are mentally represented 14–16 . 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  \nfind that single concepts unfold into multiple distinct visual exemplars, revealing latent information about similarities and differences in conceptual structure across cultures. This variation is strongest for concepts involving haptic interaction17 , suggesting that visual imagery reflects variation in embodied experience as much as conventional definitions. Comparing embedding models of sketches with word embedding models across languages, we find that their geometries diverge, with visual representations preserving rich semantic and cultural structure that language models compress. Cross-cultural similarities derived from sketches align 45% more closely with established cultural distances than do text-based measures. Together, these results suggest that patterns of human conceptual universality may depend critically on the modality through which concepts are measured, with large-scale sketching providing a direct, high-resolution probe of conceptual diversity across embodied and cultural dimensions of thought.  \nHow universal are human concepts? Recent advances in natural language processing have made it possible to explore this longstanding question empirically by identifying similarities between linguistic concepts across languages and cultures, as captured by the statistical associations of words in large online corpora. Yet the results of these efforts have been markedly mixed. On the one hand, several large-scale textual analyses provide evidence that different languages and cultures conceptualise common aspects of experience in highly similar ways, ranging from colours and actions to natural objects and kinship, supporting the existence of largely universal concepts 1–8 . On the other hand, studies using similar techniques report striking cross-cultural variation in the conceptual structure of highly familiar and seemingly basic domains of everyday life, including emotions, body parts, and food9–12 . However, it remains unclear whether these inconsistencies reflect genuine variation in the level of universality in conceptual structure across cultures, or rather variation at the level of word-based representations, which can co-exist with other forms of variation in conceptual structure, for  \nexample in image-based or affect-based associations. A defining feature of word-based communication is that it is a lossy medium of expression 14 : by design, words compress enormous amounts of detail and variation from sensory experience to communicate abstractions that generalize across contexts (e.g., humans perceive many more colors than are captured by the dozen or so color words in common parlance) . This raises the question of whether, to complement word-based analyses, insights can be gai","cbCaik2qn82iUvko","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaik2qn82iUvko","pdf",7623381,3,1,41,"English","en",105,"# Introduction\n## Word-based universality and its limitations\n# Method and data\n## Large-scale human sketch dataset\n# Results\n## Visual exemplars and cross-cultural structure\n## Comparison with word embeddings\n## Relationship to cultural distances\n# Discussion and implications","[{\"question\":\"What limitation of word-based analyses motivates this study?\",\"answer\":\"Words compress experiential variation into shared conventions, which can obscure hidden individual and cultural differences in conceptual representations.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the study measure conceptual structure across cultures?\",\"answer\":\"It analyzes 2.6 billion human-made sketches of common concepts from 236 countries and territories to infer structure from people’s visual imagination.\"},{\"question\":\"What main finding compares sketch representations with word embeddings?\",\"answer\":\"The geometries of sketch embeddings diverge from word embedding models across languages, with visual representations preserving richer semantic and cultural structure that language models compress.\"}]",1784185973,103,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":25,"language":24,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":86,"head_meta":88,"extra_data":90,"updated_unix":28},"billions-of-sketches-reveal-hidden-cultural-variation-in-human-concepts","",{"@graph":36,"@context":85},[37,53,68],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,48,50],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":21},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":47},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":49,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",{"item":51,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":52},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/billions-of-sketches-reveal-hidden-cultural-variation-in-human-concepts/83211/",4,{"url":51,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":24,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":62,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":63,"interactionStatistic":64},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":41,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-07-24","2026-07-16",true,{"@type":65,"interactionType":66,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":67},"ViewAction",{"@type":69,"mainEntity":70},"FAQPage",[71,77,81],{"name":72,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":74},"What limitation of word-based analyses motivates this study?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"Words compress experiential variation into shared conventions, which can obscure hidden individual and cultural differences in conceptual representations.","Answer",{"name":78,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":79},"How does the study measure conceptual structure across cultures?",{"text":80,"@type":76},"It analyzes 2.6 billion human-made sketches of common concepts from 236 countries and territories to infer structure from people’s visual imagination.",{"name":82,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":83},"What main finding compares sketch representations with word embeddings?",{"text":84,"@type":76},"The geometries of sketch embeddings diverge from word embedding models across languages, with visual representations preserving richer semantic and cultural structure that language models 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