THE WEIRDEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous. By Joseph Henrich. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2020. 704 pages. Hardcover. $35.00.
Harvard professor Joseph Henrich’s book has a weird title to say the least. Actually, he has not said the least (and maybe, he would allow, not the last), but he certainly has said a lot about the topic, about “How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous.” This weighty book runs 700 pages (150 of which are notes and bibliography), with text packed with analysis on hosts of studies along with detailed explanations of just how Henrich thinks this phenomenon has come about. Charts and graphs abound along with statistics by the gross, all to make the case that being WEIRD did not erupt overnight or result from a few fortuitous coincidences. The title may sound like catchy marketing, but this is a formidable book and not a quick read. The WEIRD mind has been a long time coming, resting on long-term historical developments. Writing, for example, not only opened up communication possibilities, but actually rewired the natural brain, forging new paths for processing within those little gray cells. (And now the Internet along with other e-media are undoing and re-routing in different directions.) WEIRDness also rests heavily on the rise of Christianity’s efforts not simply
to evangelize but also to socialize and enculturate, shaping habits and relationships of countless people groups, a task/opportunity the institutional church shouldered when the anchor of the Roman Empire gave way. So, for example, it now fell to church to adjudicate on ideas as simple as whom you could and could not marry, leading to family restructuring and undermining larger tribal connections where church-defined restrictions were no issue. Changes accumulated over centuries until eventually what emerged were people who were Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic—WEIRD. To be sure, WEIRD people have not all marched lockstep, and those five traits show up in varying degrees. But compared to others not part of this long-term development path—the
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