The World's Strangest: How Westerners Achieved Psychological Idiosyncrasies and Became Extraordinarily Successful
19.99 €
In stock
The World's Strangest: How Westerners Achieved Psychological Idiosyncrasies and Became Extraordinarily Successful
19.99 €
Unlike most of the world’s population, past and present, Westerners are highly individualistic, analytical, and trusting of strangers. They focus on themselves—their personal qualities, achievements, and aspirations—rather than on relationships with others and stable social roles. How did they become so psychologically strange? What role did their psychological characteristics play in the rise of Protestantism, the Industrial Revolution, and the global expansion of Europe over the past few centuries?
To answer these and other questions, Harvard professor Joseph Henrich draws on the latest findings from anthropology, psychology, economics, and biology in The World’s Strangest. He traces the cultural evolution of kinship, marriage, religion, and the state, demonstrating the profound interplay between these institutions and the human psyche. Focusing on the centuries immediately following the fall of Rome, Henrik shows that the fundamental institutions of kinship and marriage acquired a striking distinctiveness in the West as a result of the almost random decisions of the early Church. It was these changes that led to the emergence of a distinctive Western psychology that would later co-evolve with impersonal markets, professional specialization, and free competition, thus laying the foundations of the modern world.
To answer these and other questions, Harvard professor Joseph Henrich draws on the latest findings from anthropology, psychology, economics, and biology in The World’s Strangest. He traces the cultural evolution of kinship, marriage, religion, and the state, demonstrating the profound interplay between these institutions and the human psyche. Focusing on the centuries immediately following the fall of Rome, Henrik shows that the fundamental institutions of kinship and marriage acquired a striking distinctiveness in the West as a result of the almost random decisions of the early Church. It was these changes that led to the emergence of a distinctive Western psychology that would later co-evolve with impersonal markets, professional specialization, and free competition, thus laying the foundations of the modern world.
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