However, in the case of Behavioral Economics (in which I am a researcher) the "generalizability" of such findings to the "human race" is something of a red herr

However, in the case of Behavioral Economics (in which I am a researcher) the "generalizability" of such findings to the "human race" is something of a red herring. Do you think Wal-Mart cares when they routinely take advantage of bad depth judgments and sell cereal boxes that appear bigger when in fact they just shrink the dimension not visible on the shelf? When they routinely offer decoy options in stereos that make the more profitable option appear more compelling? Guess what: consumer psychology, especially for our commercially driven culture, is endlessley valuable. Call it what you will, the WEIRD world is a big world--one whose laws and economic assumptions have great impact on the rest of civilization. The goal of behavioral economics isn't to generalize about the human race (although several of its hypotheses do), but rather to inform sound policy (to not take human rationality for granted, for example) and to help WEIRDOs better understand their day-to-day decisions so that they can make better ones going forward. I think that's a valuable program, don't you?