innovation technological took humanity to an unbelievable place only a few hundred years ago. And the reason is not entirely clear: humanity has been stagnant for millennia, with very slow technological advances and significant potholes. However, over the past 500 years advances have increased rapidly, and with them prosperity.

I recently bought a sociology book. The strangest people of the world. It explains the evolution of psychology in the West, he says, that’s what triggered this surge in technological innovation. And behind this psychological change is the Catholic Church.

Westerners WEIRD (weird)

Westerners call us throughout the book STRANGE, that is, it is an acronym for rare (English) but also Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic (translated: western, educated, industrialized, wealthy and democratic). I couldn’t find the book translated into Spanish.

The book was written by Joseph Henrich, a professor anthropologist in the department of evolutionary human biology at Harvard University, which gives him some authority over the data he presents. This and the 70-page bibliography, as well as many charts summarizing numerous scientific studies on psychology.

Henrich begins by explaining how this happened. psychology of societies STRANGE. In the 20th century, what was generally thought of as human psychology (since all psychological work was done with students from Western universities) turned into a very specific psychology. In fact, it is quite rare in general, both geographically (this is the case only in western and westernized societies) and historically (these differences begin to appear after 1500).

Classically, humans lived in hunter-gatherer tribes. Everything within the tribe was family, and everything outside was hostile. This did not change when agriculture came, but these relationships were even more rigid and created very rigid clans. It makes sense, for the farming to work well and the members to be able to eat, everyone had to be very coordinated.

In such clan or tribal societies that still exist in the non-Western world, compatibility is very important. A type of society in which dishonesty is more important than guilt, and the partner is helped above all else (for example, a clan member who commits a crime is never exposed).

Family cohesion is weaker in WEIRD societies. We trust strangers more and socially punish those who break the rules. Guilt is stronger than dishonor, and we place a high value on intent. In fact, while our penal codes clearly distinguish whether a crime is intended to commit a crime, not so much in more traditional societies.

Henrich cites many examples of studies where psychological differences between less WEIRD populations and more WEIRD populations are clear. Finally we’re talking about a spectrum, it’s not all black and white. However Anglo Saxon countriesAlong with the Netherlands they are the most likely to have this type of behavior, which we assume to be normal, but according to the author, it’s actually pretty rare from a historical perspective (hence the abbreviation).

Origins of WEIRD society

But why did this kind of psychology arise in the West? Henrich points to a key actor: the Catholic Church. There were different sects when Christianity emerged, but one prevailed over the others and established its center of power in Rome. And from there and for more than a thousand years, starting with the year 305, they decided to break the family ties of the clans in order to impose their power. In societies based on clans or extended families, power is held by the head of the clan. And influencing its members from the outside is very complex.

The Church has decided to sever these ties. power of influence directly on people. This led to the prohibition of certain practices, such as consanguineous marriage, collective inheritance, or sororate or levirate (the practice in which when a person dies, a widow or widower must marry the deceased’s sister or brother).

The Church came to ban sixth cousins ​​from marrying, making it very difficult to maintain the clan structure as members of these clans had to go out to find a mate. By breaking down these structures and promoting nuclear families without an extended family, Henrich explains, it becomes easier to create relationships with strangers, thereby nurturing a particular psychology, WEIRD.

One way Henrich supports this theory is that the areas with the longest influence of the Catholic Church have more WEIRD psychology. Southern Italy and Spain, which have long had a Muslim presence, have less WEIRD psychology than Northern Europe. This can be contradictory because while it is true that certain areas had a lot of Muslim influence, others lived under the Catholic Church from very early times. Much more than Northern Europe, where Christianization was as late as 1000 years. However, it seems clear that Northern Europe is more peculiar.

In the book you can see several graphs where you can see the relationship between the strongest features of WEIRD psychology. lower concentration marriages between cousins ​​and second cousins, the latter highly decisive in the influence of the Catholic Church (the prohibition of marriages between rather distant relatives remained in effect in the Catholic Church until 1917 and between second cousins ​​until 1983).

Henrich also explains that the Protestant revolution deepened WEIRD psychology because it promoted literacy and that this encouraged some of the psychological changes that had occurred in the previous millennium. The paradox here was that the Protestant revolution liberated itself precisely from the yoke of the Catholic Church. Was it really the influence of the Church, or the resistance of the population against its power, that created WEIRD psychology? Henrich did not finish examining this matter.

Consequences of the new psychology

Therefore, we have a different psychology in the West than before, and with many arguments we theorize that these changes were unintentionally caused by the Catholic Church because what it wanted was to break existing power structures. But how can these psychological changes drive things as diverse as technological innovation or commerce?

There is a quote from Said Ibn Ahman, a Muslim living in Toledo who in 1068 divided the world into two groups: the civilized and the barbarians. Among the civilized were Indians, Jews, Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans (Byzantines). He then established two strata among the barbarians: the Turks and Chinese at the top, and the lower ones: the “black barbarians” from South Africa and the “white barbarians” from northern Europe. But 500 years later these arewhite barbarians“They created enough technology to reach America, publish serials, and lay the foundations for industrial revolutions.

Henrich argues this is all because of WEIRD psychology. By 1500, the Catholic Church was breaking up clans that had had influence for over 1,000 years. And humans had to cooperate with other aliens in order to survive. This fueled trade, the establishment of guilds, and the growth of cities.

This process was gradual, but you can see cities growing much faster in Europe than in other parts of the world. Cities and groups of people have been found to encourage the exchange of ideas and innovation. This again brings us a contradiction: before this time, the most important cities were not in the Christian world (Mesopotamia, China, or even Muslim Toledo) and there was no such obvious scientific innovation.

Henrich explains that a new situation has arisen. civil institutions (since people were not strictly tied to a clan) and this encouraged democracy because equals had to be governed in some way. In fact, even in the Middle Ages there are examples of democracy in the management of guilds, associations and even cities.

The brief summary I propose here is much more advanced than the book, which discusses everything it reveals in great detail, with data, graphs, and studies. It is really recommended, but there may be some controversial points where the cause-effect relationships are not very clear.

The World’s Weirdest People: How the West Got Psychologically Weird and Particularly Prosperous

Today on Amazon for 18.05 Euros

Picture: Alexander Nachev