The WEIRDest People in the World

How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous

By: Joseph Henrich

Narrated by: Korey Jackson

Length: 19 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

A bold, epic account of how the co-evolution of psychology and culture created the peculiar Western mind that has profoundly shaped the modern world.

Perhaps you are WEIRD: raised in a society that is Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic. If so, you’re rather psychologically peculiar.

Unlike much of the world today, and most people who have ever lived, WEIRD people are highly individualistic, self-obsessed, control-oriented, nonconformist, and analytical. They focus on themselves—their attributes, accomplishments, and aspirations—over their relationships and social roles. How did WEIRD populations become so psychologically distinct? What role did these psychological differences play in the industrial revolution and the global expansion of Europe during the last few centuries?

In The WEIRDest People in the World, Joseph Henrich draws on cutting-edge research in anthropology, psychology, economics, and evolutionary biology to explore these questions and more. He illuminates the origins and evolution of family structures, marriage, and religion, and the profound impact these cultural transformations had on human psychology. Mapping these shifts through ancient history and late antiquity, Henrich reveals that the most fundamental institutions of kinship and marriage changed dramatically under pressure from the Roman Catholic Church. It was these changes that gave rise to the WEIRD psychology that would coevolve with impersonal markets, occupational specialization, and free competition—laying the foundation for the modern world.

Provocative and engaging in both its broad scope and its surprising details, The WEIRDest People in the World explores how culture, institutions, and psychology shape one another, and explains what this means for both our most personal sense of who we are as individuals and also the large-scale social, political, and economic forces that drive human history.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2020 Joseph Henrich (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

"A fascinating, vigorously argued work that probes deeply into the way “WEIRD people” think." (Kirkus)

"Joseph Henrich has undertaken a massively ambitious work that explains the transition to the modern world from kin-based societies, drawing on a wealth of data across disciplines that significantly contributes to our understanding of this classic issue in social theory." (Francis Fukuyama, author of The Origins of Political Order and Political Order and Political Decay) 

"Ambitious and fascinating...This meaty book is ready-made for involved discussions." (Publisher's Weekly) 

Lots of mispronounced words

Just a quick note that the narrator mispronounces lots of words. Not super difficult stuff - isn’t there a producer / editor to catch this stuff?

bad narration of a good book

I highly recommend this book-- for reading. I don't recommend the audible version. The narrator has a pleasant enough voice and enunciates clearly (hence two stars instead of one), but his pronunciation is often distracting (e.g., "-ure" words such as "endure" sound like "-oor" words, and "prevalence" is read with the stress on the second syllable and a long "a" sound ...). The real problem, though, is that the narrator doesn't read as if he understands what he's saying. He seems to be reading word by word, rather than seeing where a sentence is going and adjusting his delivery to reflect the larger structure and the various components --phrases, clauses, conjunctions-- within it. I've been listening to audiobooks for at least 25 years, and I don't recall having come across another narrator who does so little to help me keep track of where I am in a sentence. Nevertheless, I did manage to listen to the whole book despite nearly giving up after 30 minutes. Switching to 1.25 speed (a first, for me) made a big difference.

Ruined by Poor Narration - Save your Money

A great book ruined by sloppy narration. Pathetic. The narrator sounds like he’s never read a book aloud before.

poor narrator

the narrator destroys this audiobook, it is almost unbearable to listen to. story is great en enlightening.

One of the best books I've read about who we sre

This book continues and expands on Joe Henrich's excellent "The Secret of our Success" (2015). It must be one of the best books about anthropology, economics, and psychology in a long time. it explains who we (Europeans and North Americans) are, and we became this way. It's a well told story and very convincing.

Digestible Academia

This book does a dantastic job using high level behavioral studies to make its point, while making it graspable for any level reader.

The book falls a bit short of the apex because I feel that there wasnt a good point made for what should be done with the information given in this book. It makes it point and then ends.

Dense with ideas, Narration is perfectly fine

Despite some negative reviews, I found the narration perfectly fine. The audio performer has many credits to his name for good reason.

The book itself is dense with theories and ideas about cultural evolution. It’s a narrative about societies/cultures shaping the future. In our current time of partisan divides it’s worth contemplating how our societies are shaping us and how we can in turn shape them, hopefully for the better.

Narration made understanding the book more difficult.

The tone and tempo of the narrator was very distracting. Consider another performer next time.

Probably better experience with non-audio book

This book gets 5 stars for content, but definitely not for reading experience, especially on audible. This is probably worth getting the paper copy and re-reading at some point.
You could basically teach an undergrad level anthropology/history/psychology course with this as the textbook.
That’s how dense it is with theory, research references, and historical data.

The biggest takeaway is that there are objective differences in culture, developed as a result of a variety of specific historical factors, that play a huge factor in the success or failure of any group of people.

Mostly harmless

While the pronunciation errors other reviewers have noted are significantly more frequent than in any other audiobook I've listened to, and sometimes embarrassingly silly, they rarely impeded comprehension. The only instance I can recall in which it came close was when 'causal' was read as 'casual' in a setting where the latter could have also made sense.

Outstandingly informative

This is a tough but exquisitely rewarding read. You'll learn why the woke narrative of all peoples being alike is such an outrageous and dangerous lie. Henrich makes meticulously evidenced claims to show why Chinese people copy, Arabs overreact to perceived insults, and why incestuous societies don't act like integrated societies at all - but rather mere groupings of families and clans. Civilisations are rare and precious things; if you've ever doubted the need to defend yours against those who regard its values with contempt or cavalier disregard, then this is the book to make you hold your nerve against the polite lie. We're not all the same, and this book shows how our deepest cultural values change with glacial pace across the generations. No amount of inculcation can turn even a Sicilian into a Berliner - let alone transform someone from an even more widely separated culture. This book offers very detailed descriptions of all the supporting evidence for its claims, making it both worthy and wordy - it's fascinating, but expect deep details, not bouncy narrative and engaging anecdotes.
One small beef: Korey Jackson is an odd choice to narrate this book; his accent and rhythmically precise, rap-like delivery is incongruous with the occasionally quasi-autobiographical perspective of the author. He's obviously not from the European-rooted culture described in personal terms by the author, so it's a bit like having a cat narrate a book written by a dog - albeit a very eloquent cat.

Manipulative, unscientific and potentially harmful

Most late anthropologists will strive to provide nuanced and non monolithic culture predictions when possible. Joseph Henrich tries to consolidate multiple psychological studies (which many are either flawed, disproven or recalled) into a narrative regarding first: societies with early Protestantism are special
And secondly men in monogamous societies are less criminal because they have a statistically entrée chance of breeding (super strange btw)

Through a wishwash of academic sounding phrases he tries to gaslight the reader into thinking that he the author is not favourable to western white men - but merely stating “facts” - most of which are either cherrypicked, unrelated or hard to reproduce

Very insightful

I would be interested to read this and Gun's Germs and Steel. This kind of cultural analysis is interesting because it not only offers explanations but also shows (or at least tries to show) causal links using study designs that are robust. Combined with other understandings of human behaviour from behavioural genetics I think you get a good understanding of our species

Great! but quite hard

amazing content, beautifully presented. it was just over my cognitive threshold so really had to struggle through it, but very much enjoyed its lessons where I understood it.

Fascinating ... but how true?

His argumentation makes sense as a hypothesis. Time will tell if facts hold. I have my doubts

A Fascinating Yet Overconfident New Worldview

This book presents a grand thesis - that the medieval church and its family policy are ultimately responsible for how psychologically and therefore socially peculiar Western societies are. As is the case with any overarching narrative, it is more likely to be wrong than completely right. Henrich presents compelling evidence, yet in my view, the number of chains in his causal link that he has to forge is rather large. Whether this thesis is true or not, this book has nevertheless had great impact on me. It shows the reader a completely new way of how we might explain the social world around us and its history - through the lenses of cultural evolution. Too few social scientists and historians take it seriously, yet Henrich shows it to be crucial and tears the blindfold of Western-centric views of human cognition, sociality and morality from our eyes. A must (critical) read.

enlightenment puzzle

an important piece of the puzzle in solving the mystery of why the enlightenment and industrial revolution happened in western Europe.

Extraordinary book

A vast and compelling account of why we weirds are the way we are, and aren’t. A vast and convincing array of research and so many “bloody hell” lightbulb moments that may change the way you think about the world. If you love your Harari’s and Breman’s of this world you’ll love this. Essential reading and a future classic.

Think game changer

This is one of the best books I have read ever. it adds so much not just to my thinking but understanding of people and the world around me. very impressed

Difficult to listen to

I was seriously thinking that this was a robot reading, ie., AI reading of book. I was not able to listen, so I can not judge the contents