Behavioral scientists routinely publish broad claims about human psychology and behavior in the world's top journals based on samples drawn entirely from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) societies. Researchers - often implicitly - assume that either there is little variation across human populations, or that these "standard subjects" are as representative of the species as any other population. Are these assumptions justified? Here, our review of the comparative database from across the behavioral sciences suggests both that there is substantial variability in experimental results across populations and that WEIRD subjects are particularly unusual compared with the rest of the species - frequent outliers. The domains reviewed include visual perception, fairness, cooperation, spatial reasoning, categorization and inferential induction, moral reasoning, reasoning styles, self-concepts and related motivations, and the heritability of IQ. The findings suggest that members of WEIRD societies, including young children, are among the least representative populations one could find for generalizing about humans. Many of these findings involve domains that are associated with fundamental aspects of psychology, motivation, and behavior - hence, there are no obvious a priori grounds for claiming that a particular behavioral phenomenon is universal based on sampling from a single subpopulation. Overall, these empirical patterns suggests that we need to be less cavalier in addressing questions of human nature on the basis of data drawn from this particularly thin, and rather unusual, slice of humanity. We close by proposing ways to structurally re-organize the behavioral sciences to best tackle these challenges.

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The WEIRDest People in the World

Attachment--and loss.

/pdf/weird-languages-have-misled-us-too-comment-on-henrich-et-al-57dmcdjt24.pdf

WEIRD languages have misled us, too [Comment on Henrich et al.]

Meta-analytic procedures were used to test the effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, empathy/desensitization, and prosocial behavior. Unique features of this meta-analytic review include (a) more restrictive methodological quality inclusion criteria than in past meta-analyses; (b) cross-cultural comparisons; (c) longitudinal studies for all outcomes except physiological arousal; (d) conservative statistical controls; (e) multiple moderator analyses; and (f) sensitivity analyses. Social-cognitive models and cultural differences between Japan and Western countries were used to generate theory-based predictions. Meta-analyses yielded significant effects for all 6 outcome variables. The pattern of results for different outcomes and research designs (experimental, cross-sectional, longitudinal) fit theoretical predictions well. The evidence strongly suggests that exposure to violent video games is a causal risk factor for increased aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, and aggressive affect and for decreased empathy and prosocial behavior. Moderator analyses revealed significant research design effects, weak evidence of cultural differences in susceptibility and type of measurement effects, and no evidence of sex differences in susceptibility. Results of various sensitivity analyses revealed these effects to be robust, with little evidence of selection (publication) bias.

/pdf/violent-video-game-effects-on-aggression-empathy-and-5ejp95ybou.pdf

Violent Video Game Effects on Aggression, Empathy, and Prosocial Behavior in Eastern and Western Countries: A Meta-Analytic Review.

This study investigates self-presentation strategies among online dating participants,exploring how participants manage their online presentation of self in order to accom-plish the goal of ﬁnding a romantic partner. Thirty-four individuals active on a largeonline dating site participated in telephone interviews about their online dating experi-ences and perceptions. Qualitative data analysis suggests that participants attended tosmall cues online, mediated the tension between impression management pressures andthe desire to present an authentic sense of self through tactics such as creating a proﬁlethat reﬂected their ‘‘ideal self,’’ and attempted to establish the veracity of their identityclaims. This study provides empirical support for Social Information Processing theoryin a naturalistic context while offering insight into the complicated way in which ‘‘hon-esty’’ is enacted online.doi:10.1111/j.1083-6101.2006.00020.x

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2006.00020.x

Managing Impressions Online: Self-Presentation Processes in the Online Dating Environment

Xenosophia and Religion. Biographical and Statistical Paths for a Culture of Welcome.

Attitudes Toward Separating Immigrant Families at the United States–Mexico Border

Christian no more: Christian Americans are threatened by their impending minority status

Prior research has demonstrated that adolescent delinquency and depression are prospectively related to adult alcohol use and that adolescent religiosity may influence these relationships. However, such associations have not been investigated using person-centered approaches that provide nuanced explorations of these constructs. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, we examined whether adolescent delinquency and depression differentiated typologies of adult alcohol users and whether these relationships varied across religiosity profiles. Three typologies of self-identified Christian adolescents and 4 types of adult alcohol users were identified via latent profile analysis. Delinquency and depression were related to increased likelihood of membership in heavy drinking or problematic alcohol use profiles, but this relationship was most evident among those likely to be involved in religious practices. These results demonstrate the importance of person-centered approaches in characterizing the influences of internalizing and externalizing behaviors on subsequent patterns of alcohol use.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1178221816686060

Prior Delinquency and Depression Differentially Predict Conditional Associations Between Discrete Patterns of Adolescent Religiosity and Adult Alcohol Use Patterns.

Difficulties tolerating uncertainty are considered central to anxiety disorders. Despite researchers providing indirect evidence for the potential importance of personal uncertainty to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), extant research has focused on how intolerance of informational uncertainty relates to this disorder. We addressed this gap in the literature by examining the impact of personal uncertainty on a moral/religious subtype of OCD (i.e., scrupulosity) in the present research. In Study 1, community respondents (N = 120) completed a personal uncertainty or control manipulation and self-report measures assessing the moral appraisals of intrusive thoughts and scrupulosity. In Study 2, community respondents (N = 90) completed a personal uncertainty or control manipulation and self-report measures assessing beliefs that God is upset with sins and scrupulosity. In both studies, personal uncertainty causally strengthened associations between scrupulosity and the targeted criterion. Observed effects w...

Personal Uncertainty Strengthens Associations Between Scrupulosity and Both the Moral Appraisals of Intrusive Thoughts and Beliefs that God is Upset with Sins

Wade C. Rowatt

Papers

Xenosophia and Religion. Biographical and Statistical Paths for a Culture of Welcome.

Attitudes Toward Separating Immigrant Families at the United States–Mexico Border

Christian no more: Christian Americans are threatened by their impending minority status

Prior Delinquency and Depression Differentially Predict Conditional Associations Between Discrete Patterns of Adolescent Religiosity and Adult Alcohol Use Patterns.

Personal Uncertainty Strengthens Associations Between Scrupulosity and Both the Moral Appraisals of Intrusive Thoughts and Beliefs that God is Upset with Sins