A WEIRD View of Human Nature Skews Psychologists’ Studies
Although undergraduates from wealthy nations are numerous and willing research subjects, psychologists are beginning to realize that they have a drawback: They are WEIRDos. That is, they are people from Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic cultures. In a provocative review paper published last week, a pair of researchers argues that WEIRDos aren’t representative of humans as a whole and that psychologists routinely use them to make broad, and quite likely false, claims about what drives human behavior.
In light of books such as Crazy Like Us that explicitly illustrate how we export “care” for mental health, understanding the above is very important. We are spreading our toxic care all over the world and it’s not even working for us!
Everything matters 