In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Joseph Henrich, the author of "The WEIRDest People in the World", to discuss how strange and exceptional Western society is when compared with most of the world.
Joseph Henrich is Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. His theoretical work focuses on how natural selection has shaped human learning and how this in turn influences cultural evolution and culture-gene coevolution. This work has explored the evolution of conformist learning and human status, as well as the emergence of large-scale cooperation, norms, social stratification, world religions and monogamous marriage. Methodologically, his research synthesizes experimental and analytical tools drawn from behavioral economics and psychology with in-depth quantitative ethnography, and he has performed long-term anthropological fieldwork in the Peruvian Amazon, rural Chile, and in the South Pacific.
In 2004 he was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award, the highest award bestowed by the United States upon scientists early in their careers. In 2009, the Human Behavior and Evolution Society awarded him their Early Career Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions. He has published over sixty journal articles and has co-authored two books. He received his PhD in Anthropology from UCLA in 1999.
Joseph Henrich on WEIRD Western Society