Many of you have probably read about how different cultural norms produce different theories concerning behavior, psychology, and the underpinnings of human relationships. Or your travels may have exposed you to different norms concerning perception, ways of problem-solving, or modes of thought. For instance, take this familiar test - which of the two horizontal lines is longer?
You know the answer, but can you really see the answer, even when you know it? A very interesting new paper suggests Westerners have difficulty with this and may be weirder, compared with the many other large populations, than we thought. Heinrich, Heine, and Norenzayan in the June, 2010 issue of Brain and Behavioral Sciences suggest the following (emphasis mine):
"Behavioral scientists routinely publish broad claims about human psychology and behavior in the world's top journals based on samples drawn entirely from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) societies...The findings suggest that members of WEIRD societies, including young children, are among the leas representative populations one could find for generalizing about humans."
I recommend a reading of the entire article which you can find here.
The authors claims are very interesting and their examples compelling. But as the world grows ever more industrialized and Western methods become far more pervasive, could it be that human mental processes are adapting worldwide to a more "modern" (forgive the gross generalization) modality? Love to hear your thoughts.
And to add one more tidbit from the WEIRD article, the authors conclude that since so much of psychology depends upon Western undergraduate student populations that:
"Our database is not just an extraordinarily restricted sample of humanity; it is frequently a distinct outlier vis-à-vis other global samples. It may represent the worst population on which to base our understanding of Homo sapiens."
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