3 ms·
> sin of trying to derive all human behavior from economics/psychology To remedy to that, I highly recommend Joseph Henrich's "The Secret of Our Success". What
by Matumio 3y ago
> sin of trying to derive all human behavior from economics/psychology
To remedy to that, I highly recommend Joseph Henrich's "The Secret of Our Success". What we call "human behaviour" in such discussions is often culturally learned (or at least shaped).
His point: our psychology is "programmable", and prestige plays a key role in that programming. Western culture (market norms, trust towards strangers, monogamy as the norm, etc.) is forming our psychology in a way that is very far from (historically) typical humans.
(That said, I'm no expert in this area and cannot put Henrich's work into context.)
- revolvingocelot 3y agoWestern culture, as putative shaper of behaviour as expressed in the parent comment, even makes it into economics/psychology itself! Most psychology studies are done on WEIRD [0] people: Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic psychology undergrads. It was suggested, in 2010 anyway, that "96% of psychological samples come from countries with only 12% of the world's population". [1] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology#WEIRD_bias https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology#WEIRD_bias [1] https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/behavioral-and-brain-sciences/article/abs/weirdest-people-in-the-world/BF84F7517D56AFF7B7EB58411A554C17 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/behavioral-and-brain...