BROADCASTS.com

b'

WEIRD: Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic.

Unlike much of the world today, and most people who have ever lived, WEIRD people are highly individualistic, self-obsessed, control-oriented, nonconformist, and analytical. They focus on themselves \\u2014 their attributes, accomplishments, and aspirations \\u2014 over their relationships and social roles. How did WEIRD populations become so psychologically distinct? What role did these psychological differences play in the industrial revolution and the global expansion of Europe during the last few centuries? To answer these questions Joseph Henrich draws on anthropology, psychology, economics, and evolutionary biology. He illuminates the origins and evolution of family structures, marriage, and religion, and the profound impact these cultural transformations had on human psychology. Mapping these shifts through ancient history and late antiquity, Henrich reveals that the most fundamental institutions of kinship and marriage changed dramatically under pressure from the Roman Catholic Church. It was these changes that gave rise to the WEIRD psychology that would coevolve with impersonal markets, occupational specialization, and free competition \\u2014 laying the foundation for the modern world. Shermer and Henrich discuss:

• psychology textbooks that \\u201cnow purport to be about \\u2018Psychology\\u2019 or \\u2018Social Psychology\\u2019 need to be retitled something like \\u2018The Cultural Psychology of Late 20^th Century Americans\\u2019,\\u201d
• Darwin\\u2019s Dictum: \\u201cHow odd it is that anyone should not see that all observations must be for or against some view if it is to be of any service.\\u201d What views Henrich is writing for and against,
• evolutionary psychology and the search for human universals in the context of his thesis that WEIRD cultures are so different,
• Max Weber\\u2019s book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, and how his thesis holds up under modern studies,
• a 2\\xd72 grid analysis of his thesis (what about the exceptions?):
  • Cell 1: Catholic/Protestant Influence + WEIRD characteristics
  • Cell 2: Catholic/Protestant Influence + non-WEIRD characteristics
  • Cell 3: Non-Catholic/Protestant Influence + WEIRD characteristics
  • Cell 4: Non-Catholic/Protestant Influence + non-WEIRD characteristics
• the problem of overdetermining the past (so many theories explaining history: Jared Diamond\\u2019s geographic models, Ian Morris\\u2019 War: What is it Good For?, Matt Ridley\\u2019s The Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas Emerge (ideas having sex), Robin Dunbar\\u2019s Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language, economic historian Gregory Clark\\u2019s A Farewell to Alms, Benjamin Friedman\\u2019s Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, Rodney Stark\\u2019s The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success,
• normative vs. descriptive accounts of human behavior
• polygamy vs. monogamy,
• 1^st cousin marriages?
• conformity, shame and guilt, illusions, loss aversion, cognitive dissonance, confirmation bias, superstitions,
• religion doesn\\u2019t have to be true to be useful,
• national differences in cultural psychology (for example: Italy a loose culture, Germany a tight culture),
• origin of writing and literacy rates,
• origin of religion and its purpose(s),
• the \\u201cBig Gods\\u201d theory of religion\\u2019s origin,
• the purpose of religious rituals and food taboos,
• families and kin, kin selection, group selection,
• meaning and happiness in non-WEIRD cultures,
• \\u201cThen you get Westerners who are like \\u2018I\\u2019m an individual ape on a pale blue dot in the middle of a giant black space\\u201d and \\u201cWhat does it all mean?\\u2019\\u201d,
• physical differences: \\u201cWEIRD people have flat feet, impoverished microbiomes, high rates of myopia and unnaturally low levels of exposure to parasites like helminths, which may increase their risk of heart disease and allergies.\\u201d, and
• When we colonize Mars and become a spacefaring species, what should we take with us from what we\\u2019ve learned about human history and psychology?

Joseph Henrich is an anthropologist and the author of The Secret of Our Success: How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter, among other books. He is the chair of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, where his research focuses on evolutionary approaches to psychology, decision-making, and culture.