Evidence receipt / evaluation
Published · transcript-backedJoseph Henrich: evaluation
14 Dec 2016 Conversations with Tyler Joseph Henrich on WEIRD Societies and Life Among Two Strange Tribes (Live at Mason)
“If it was genetic, it wouldn’t go away in a few generations. It seems like they’re bringing heritage from the place, and it’s getting retransmitted because they’re in ethnic communities or they’re parents.”
Source trail
Everything needed to verify it.
- Speaker
- Joseph Henrich
- Attribution
- Verified speaker
- Claim type
- evaluation
- Recorded
- 14 Dec 2016
- Publisher
- Conversations with Tyler
Transcript context
…That decays, but it decays more slowly than a lot of people had thought. Yeah. I think that’s great evidence that it’s likely to be cultural and likely not to be genetic. If it was genetic, it wouldn’t go away in a few generations. It seems like they’re bringing heritage from the place, and it’s getting retransmitted because they’re in ethnic communities or they’re parents. Then it disappears once they converge to the local mean. Say the Bill Easterly paper (I think it’s Bill Easterly) that goes back to the year 500 AD. Per capita GDP in 500 AD predicts per capita GDP today relatively well, at least much better than almost any other model would lead you to think. Now, it could be cherry-picking. 500 AD actually may do better than 1500 AD. But do you think that result is just an artifact? Or is it reflecting the fact that cultural evolution runs deep and once you’re in a good groove, it tends to be self-reinforcing and you don’t get out of it very easily?…
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