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The cover of The Weirdest People in the World

The Weirdest People in the World

Joseph Henrich, 2020

See how the medieval Church's rules on marriage and family broke up Europe's clans, reshaped how Westerners think, and helped give rise to impersonal markets, democracy, law and science.

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16 parts, about 42 minutes to read.

Why read it

  • Argues that Western individualism grew from a medieval church campaign against cousin marriage that broke up clans and kin networks
  • Helps you see that trust, guilt, analytic thinking and even monogamy are cultural products, not universal human nature
  • Backs a sweeping historical claim with experiments across many societies and data on bishoprics, kinship and migrants

Who it is for

  • Readers who enjoy big theories of why the West got rich
  • Psychologists and students questioning studies drawn from Western samples
  • People who work across cultures and notice different moral instincts

What the summary covers

  1. Preface1 min
  2. Your Brain Has Been Modified2 min
  3. WEIRD Psychology4 min
  4. Making a Cultural Species2 min
  5. Clans, States, and Why You Can't Get Here from There2 min
  6. The Gods Are Watching. Behave!2 min
  7. WEIRD Families3 min
  8. Psychological Differences, Families, and the Church4 min
  9. Europe and Asia2 min
  10. WEIRD Monogamy2 min
  11. Of Commerce and Cooperation3 min
  12. Domesticating the Competition3 min
  13. Market Mentalities3 min
  14. Law, Science, and Religion4 min
  15. Escape Velocity2 min
  16. The Dark Matter of History3 min

Recommended by

  • Uta FrithEmeritus Professor of Cognitive Development, University College London
    The most absorbing, provocative and compelling book I have read in a long time.
  • Francis FukuyamaAuthor of The Origins of Political Order
    A massively ambitious work that explains the transition to the modern world

About the author

  • Joseph HenrichAmerican anthropologist and professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University
    • Joseph Henrich is a professor and chair of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University.
    • He earned bachelor's degrees in anthropology and aerospace engineering from the University of Notre Dame in 1991 and a doctorate in anthropology from the University of California at Los Angeles.
    • Before Harvard he was a professor of psychology and economics at the University of British Columbia, where he held a Canada Research Chair.
    • He received the 2003 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.
    • With collaborators he coined the label WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) for the populations most often studied in psychology.
    • He is also the author of The Secret of Our Success.

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