Are You WEIRD? (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, & Democratic)

In some of my recent posts (I, II), I’ve made some points that may come across as anti-individualist. But I’m not anti-individualist. Nor am I anti-collectivist. I believe that there are costs/ benefits to both, and that preference is determined by one’s psychology — not which one’s objectively ‘the best’.

Joseph Henrich’s recent book, The WEIRDest People in the World, does a good job of demonstrating the costs/ benefits to individualism and collective ‘kin-based’ institutions. According to Henrich, individualism is a WEIRD psychology, referring to the acronym in the title but also individualism’s ‘strangeness’ from a global/ historical perspective:

Perhaps you are WEIRD, raised in a society that is Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic. If so, you’re likely rather psychologically peculiar. Unlike much of the world today, and most people who have ever lived, we WEIRD people are highly individualistic, self-obsessed, control-oriented, nonconformist, and analytical

Non-WEIRD societies, by contrast, exhibit ‘psychological inclinations that favor peer conformity, deference to elders, shame-avoidance, and respect for traditional authorities’. If these latter traits seem more admirable, this is because individualism is new — from a species perspective — and we…