Photo by Abdeljalil Bounhar/Associated Press

Whenever the British look abroad for inspiration, I think of fish.

The “Michigan fish test” in 2001 found striking differences in the interpretations by participants from Japan and the US of an animated scene of fish swimming underwater. When asked to report what they’d seen, the Japanese viewers were more likely to describe the whole scene – a lake or a pond, say – while the Americans mentioned the big fish in the foreground: the “main characters”. When shown different versions, with changes to background scenery (seaweed, rocks, bubbles), the Japanese found it easier to spot the differences, whereas the Americans were less likely to notice.…