Tyler Cowen Talks with Joseph Henrich

Self-recommending. A couple of excerpts from Henrich.

Humans really don’t think as individuals. We don’t innovate as individuals. We innovate as groups. Groups that, for whatever reason, are able to create more social interconnections produce fancier tools and technology, and they’re able to maintain larger bodies of know-how.

and

Much of behavioral economics, at least at the time, was based on running experiments on undergrads. It’s actually mostly American undergrads that are studied.

The point is that these studies may not replicate, because they are limited to people who are Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic–WEIRD.

Recall that I based a lot of my essay on cultural intelligence on Henrich’s book.

The interview with Cowen is lively and interesting throughout.

2 thoughts on “Tyler Cowen Talks with Joseph Henrich

  1. Biology is even worse, they test on rats! But seriously, this is only a problem if you assume the studies replicate easily? Who does that?

  2. I just got around to listening to that yesterday. Fantastic stuff. I may have to buy one of Henrich’s books one of these days.

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