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The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous Audiobook
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A bold, epic account of how the co-evolution of psychology and culture created the peculiar Western mind that has profoundly shaped the modern world.
Perhaps you are WEIRD: raised in a society that is Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic. If so, you’re rather psychologically peculiar.
Unlike much of the world today, and most people who have ever lived, WEIRD people are highly individualistic, self-obsessed, control-oriented, nonconformist, and analytical. They focus on themselves—their attributes, accomplishments, and aspirations—over their relationships and social roles. How did WEIRD populations become so psychologically distinct? What role did these psychological differences play in the industrial revolution and the global expansion of Europe during the last few centuries?
In The WEIRDest People in the World, Joseph Henrich draws on cutting-edge research in anthropology, psychology, economics, and evolutionary biology to explore these questions and more. He illuminates the origins and evolution of family structures, marriage, and religion, and the profound impact these cultural transformations had on human psychology. Mapping these shifts through ancient history and late antiquity, Henrich reveals that the most fundamental institutions of kinship and marriage changed dramatically under pressure from the Roman Catholic Church. It was these changes that gave rise to the WEIRD psychology that would coevolve with impersonal markets, occupational specialization, and free competition—laying the foundation for the modern world.
Provocative and engaging in both its broad scope and its surprising details, The WEIRDest People in the World explores how culture, institutions, and psychology shape one another, and explains what this means for both our most personal sense of who we are as individuals and also the large-scale social, political, and economic forces that drive human history.
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""This is a deep and important book of tremendous erudition, engagingly written with vivid examples, that highlights at once the ways in which human beings are similar and dissimilar the world over."
— Nicholas Christakis, author of Blueprint
Quotes
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“Makes[s] an ambitious case for the distinctiveness of Western psychology.”
— New York Times Book Review -
“Ambitious and fascinating…[This] book is ready-made for involved discussions.”
— Publisher’s Weekly -
“A fascinating, vigorously argued work that probes deeply into the way ‘WEIRD people’ think.”
— Kirkus Reviews -
“There’s nothing so fascinating as a social anthropologist’s analysis of his own tribe. Joseph Henrich shows how strange and exceptional Western society is when compared with most of the world.”
— John Barton, author of A History of the Bible
Awards
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New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice
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About Joseph Henrich
Joseph Henrich is professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University. He also holds the Canada Research Chair in Culture, Cognition, and Coevolution at the University of British Columbia, where he is a professor in the departments of psychology and economics. He is coauthor of Why Humans Cooperate and coeditor of Experimenting with Social Norms.
About Korey Jackson
Korey Jackson, an Earphones Award-winning narrator, is an actor, known for his roles in the films 37, Life Itself, and Anesthesia. He earned his MFA in acting from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.