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Joseph Henrich on WEIRD Societies and Life Among Two Strange Tribes (Live at Mason)

Dec 14, 2016

Guest

Joseph Henrich

Joseph Henrich, anthropologist and author who studies cultural evolution, discusses how culture shapes cooperation, cognition, and institutions. He covers big gods and moralizing religions, why WEIRD populations differ, how population connectivity fuels cumulative knowledge, China’s missing early industrial revolution, and quirky field stories from Fiji and the Mapuche. Short, wide-ranging, and often surprising.

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INSIGHT

Big Gods Help Large-Scale Cooperation

Humans' evolved mentalizing makes belief in supernatural agents easy and repeatable across cultures.
Big, moralizing gods that punish helped scale cooperation in larger societies.

insights

INSIGHT

The Collective Brain Drives Innovation

Innovation depends on the 'collective brain' of interconnected people, not lone geniuses.
Larger, better-connected populations maintain more complex cumulative knowledge and technologies.

insights

INSIGHT

Culture Offloads Cognitive Burden

Culture offloads problem-solving, reducing individual encyclopedic knowledge compared to ancestors.
Modern people rely on specialized, downloaded knowledge and can't reconstruct old productive systems alone.

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Big Gods and the Scaling of Cooperation

01:58 • 49sec

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Mentalizing, Dualism, and Religious Belief

02:47 • 2min

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Mismatch Theory and Cooperation

04:37 • 2min

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The Collective Brain and Innovation

06:16 • 1min

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Population Size, Interconnectedness, and Catch-up

07:30 • 47sec

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Cultural Pessimism and Genetic Responses

08:17 • 2min

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The Internet's Short- and Long-Term Effects

10:13 • 1min

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Assortative Mating and Cultural Constraints

11:19 • 26sec

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How Culture Makes Us 'Dumber' and Smarter

11:46 • 2min

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Brain Size, Self-Domestication, and Division of Labor

14:01 • 2min

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Genes, Agriculture, and Rapid Genetic Change

15:32 • 1min

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Agriculture's Cultural Legacy on Cooperation

16:44 • 2min

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Persistence and Convergence of Cultural Traits

18:41 • 1min

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Family Institutions as Barriers to Reform

19:45 • 2min

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WEIRD Populations and Research Bias

21:39 • 2min

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Markets, Norms, and Stranger Cooperation

23:50 • 30sec

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Flynn Effect and Cultural Cognitive Shifts

24:20 • 3min

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Cultural Tools as Sources of Intelligence

27:03 • 2min

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Hayek, Corruption, and Loyalty Biases

29:22 • 1min

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Does Cultural Evolution Make One 'Conservative'?

30:37 • 2min

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Normative Monogamy and Social Stability

32:31 • 1min

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Fieldwork: Sonawa Islands and Chaldean Detroit

33:43 • 1min

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Herbert Spencer and Levi-Strauss Evaluated

35:07 • 46sec

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Star Trek, Anthropology, and Cultural Reflection

35:53 • 56sec

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Coconut Milk and Food Habits

36:50 • 23sec

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Mapuche Lessons: Envy, Witchcraft, and Concealment

37:12 • 1min

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Fragility of Positive-Sum Mindsets

38:32 • 2min

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Religion, Secular Institutions, and Welfare

40:19 • 2min

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Monotheism, Universalism, and Political Scale

42:27 • 4min

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Testing Big-God Effects with Experiments

45:59 • 57sec

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Church Marriage Reforms and European Transformation

46:56 • 1min

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Why China Missed an Early Industrial Revolution

48:13 • 2min

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Chinese Migrants' Cultural Capital

49:59 • 42sec

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American Exceptionalism and WEIRD Psychology

50:40 • 1min

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Neighbor Effects and Institutional Copying

51:55 • 31sec

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Chimpanzee Culture vs. Human Cumulative Culture

52:27 • 1min

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Startup Problem: Investing in Cultural Learning

53:37 • 1min

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Neanderthals, Brain Size, and Collective Brains

54:44 • 58sec

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Ethnography of Academic Tribes: Economists vs. Psychologists

55:42 • 2min

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Value of Ethnography in a Digital Age

57:25 • 1min

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Intellectual Influences and Engineering Roots

58:33 • 2min

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Current Project: Why Westerners Became WEIRD

01:00:42 • 48sec

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If He Could Time Travel: 600 AD Kent

Foundations of Social Evolution

Steven A. Frank

This book provides a comprehensive theoretical framework for understanding social evolution through natural selection, focusing on cooperation and conflict. It develops practical tools like measures of value, maximization techniques, and analyses of class structure, reproductive value, and kin selection, illustrated by models of parasite virulence, sex allocation, and social behavior in varying habitats.

#29980

• Mentioned in 2 episodes

Culture and the Evolutionary Process

Rob Boyd

Pete Richardson

#21109

• Mentioned in 2 episodes

How Soccer Explains the World

An Unlikely Theory of Globalization

Franklin Foer

Franklin Foer's "How Soccer Explains the World" is a captivating exploration of the global phenomenon of soccer, examining its cultural and political significance in various countries. Foer uses soccer as a lens to explore broader themes of nationalism, identity, and globalization. He travels to different parts of the world, observing how soccer is played, experienced, and understood in diverse cultural contexts. The book offers a unique perspective on the power of sport to shape national identities and foster a sense of community. Foer's insightful analysis makes "How Soccer Explains the World" a compelling read for both soccer fans and those interested in the intersection of sports and culture.

#830

• Mentioned in 39 episodes

The Secret of Our Success

Jonathan Yen

Joseph Henrich

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.

#289

• Mentioned in 82 episodes

Guns, germs, and steel

The Fates of Human Societies

Fabián Chueca

Jared DIAMOND

(MEI )DAI MENG DE (Diamond J. ) XIE YAN GUANG YI

In this book, Jared Diamond explains why Eurasian and North African civilizations have survived and conquered others. He argues that differences in societal development arise primarily from geographical causes. The book details how agricultural societies developed immunities to deadly diseases, advanced in technology, and formed centralized political structures, ultimately leading to the conquest of other societies. Diamond also discusses the impact of germs, domesticated animals, and environmental factors on human history.

To anthropologist Joseph Henrich, intelligence is overrated. Social learning, and its ability to influence biological evolution over time, is what really sets our species apart. He joined Tyler for a conversation on his work on cultural evolution, as well as his life among different tribes (academic and otherwise), Star Trek, big gods, small gods, China's missing industrial revolution, the merits of coconut milk, the Flynn effect, American exceptionalism, and why he wants to travel in time to 6th-century Kent.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.

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