In this book, Joseph Henrich explores how Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) populations developed their unique psychological profiles. He argues that changes in family structures, marriage, and religion, particularly influenced by the Roman Catholic Church, led to the emergence of WEIRD psychology. This psychology is characterized by individualism, self-obsession, control-orientation, nonconformity, and analytical thinking, which contrast with the more group-focused and shame-driven cultures of non-Western societies. Henrich uses research from anthropology, psychology, economics, and evolutionary biology to explain how these psychological differences contributed to the industrial revolution and the global expansion of Europe[1][4][5].
In 'The Secret of Our Success', Joseph Henrich presents a provocative alternative to the standard narrative about human evolution. He argues that the key to human success is not our individual intelligence, but our ability to form collective brains that store and transmit vast amounts of cultural knowledge. Henrich draws on findings from anthropology, linguistics, behavioral economics, psychology, and evolutionary biology to demonstrate how culture and genes interact in a unique evolutionary process that drives human innovation and progress. The book challenges traditional views of evolution and highlights the importance of social and cultural factors in shaping human behavior and achievements.
Humans have not succeeded because of our raw intelligence.
Marooned European explorers regularly starved to death in areas where foragers thrived for 1000s of years.
I’ve always found this cultural evolution deeply mysterious.
How do you discover the 10 steps for processing cassava so it won’t give you cyanide poisoning simply by trial and error?
Has the human brain declined in size over the last 10,000 years because we outsourced cultural evolution to a larger collective brain?
The most interesting part of the podcast is Henrich’s explanation of how the Catholic Church unintentionally instigated the Industrial Revolution through the dismantling of intensive kinship systems in medieval Europe.
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Joseph’s books
The WEIRDest People in the World
The Secret of Our Success
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Timestamps
(0:00:00) - Humans didn’t succeed because of raw IQ
(0:09:27) - How cultural evolution works
(0:20:48) - Why is human brain size declining?
(0:32:00) - Will AGI have superhuman cultural learning?
(0:42:34) - Why Industrial Revolution happened in Europe
(0:55:30) - Why China, Rome, India got left behind
(1:21:09) - Loss of cultural variance in modern world
(1:31:20) - Is individual genius real?
(1:43:49) - IQ and collective brains
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