Psychological Variations across Societies

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This chapter explores the origins and traits of Western educated industrialized rich and democratic societies, emphasizing the role of marriage prohibitions and prescriptions imposed by the Western church. It discusses the importance of distinguishing different societies in psychological research, touching on malleable brains, cultural beings, and the co-evolution of institutions and psychology. The chapter also addresses the limitations of social psychology experiments focusing on Western university students and the influence of culture on psychological research.

Claims about human psychology and behaviour in top international journals are largely based on the WEIRDest people in the world. People from Western Educated Industrialised Rich Democratic - or WEIRD - societies are widely used as research subjects, but the assumption that they represent a universal human population may be vastly wrong, and skew psychological research. More cultural psychology could be the answer.