#827 Joseph Henrich: Cross-Cultural Research, Intelligence, Mating Systems, and Religion
Podcast: http://bit.ly/3FeSNqb
Dr. Joseph Henrich is Professor and chair of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. He is interested in the question of how humans evolved from “being a relatively unremarkable primate a few million years ago to the most successful species on the globe”, and how culture affected our genetic development. He is also the author of The Secret of Our Success, and The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous.
In this episode, we start by talking about how culture shapes human psychology; human universals, and cognitive phenotypes; how different fields reacted to the WEIRD problem; and the replication crisis. We discuss how to understand biases, like the prestige bias. We talk about what drives innovation, and cumulative culture. We discuss the collective brain hypothesis, and reframing how we think about intelligence and IQ. We talk about assortative mating, human mating systems, and the relationship between polygyny and inequality. We discuss religion, Big Gods, and theory of mind. We talk about the best methods to study psychology historically. Finally, we discuss if we rely too much on English speakers in the study of human cognition, and the need for people from more diverse cultural backgrounds in science.
Time Links:
Intro
How culture shapes human psychology
Human universals, and cognitive phenotypes
How different fields reacted to the WEIRD psychology paper
The replication crisis
Understanding biases, including the prestige bias
What drives innovation?
Cumulative culture
The collective brain hypothesis, and reframing intelligence and IQ
Assortative mating, and human mating systems
Polygyny and inequality
Religion, Big Gods, and theory of mind
Studying psychology historically
When it comes to studying human cognition and behavior, are we relying too much on English speakers?
Follow Dr. Henrich’s work!
Follow Dr. Henrich’s work:
Our first interview: https://youtu.be/1Qx7q4Swruk
Our second interview: https://youtu.be/cN3w_cSAsmg
Faculty page: https://bit.ly/3aQSlww
Website: https://bit.ly/2MW4oPE
Culture, Cognition and Coevolution Lab: https://bit.ly/3cUV4pz
Culture, Cognition and Coevolution Lab (YT channel): https://bit.ly/2Aw0RVt
Works on ResearchGate: https://bit.ly/35jLQku
Books on Amazon: https://amzn.to/30Ct4Vl
Twitter handle: @JoHenrich