Nigel! Prepare to say "DUH!"

[East Coast Hustle]

http://www.psmag.com/magazines/pacific-standard-cover-story/joe-henrich-weird-ultimatum-game-shaking-up-psychology-economics-53135/

"HAY GUISE MAYBE WE SHOULD SEE HOW OTHER PEOPLES' BRAINS WORK NOW?" 

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

That was a great fuckin' article! I learned a little bit about these guys, and especially their explorations with the Asch conformity experiments, last year. I'm looking forward to getting back into psych classes so I can learn more, because social psychology is my favorite. One of the things that is, IMO, incredibly fascinating and important about Henrich and his colleagues' research is that it absolutely blows apart what we think we know about "human nature"; even the shorthands we use here on the board, the idea that "because monkeys" and "ook oook motherfucker", all of these "truths" about human behavior are based on and limited to WESTERN human behavior, and are not, in most cases, biologically rooted or universal at all.

[Pope Pixie Pickle]

does this mean evo psych can suck my strap on now?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

One thing the article kind of skimmed past in a way that could be misleading is that it was Asch himself who challenged the universality of his results by performing his tests in different cultures. He was fascinated to find that cultures we tend to consider more socially conforming, such as the Japanese, actually succumbed less to social pressure in his experiments.

[Pope Pixie Pickle]

it's a great website, as well,  Thanks for digging that out.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

does this mean evo psych can suck my strap on now?

Evolutionary psychology is an interesting budding field of investigation that is closely related to medical anthropology. However, it is, as an infant science, highly speculative and subject to loosely formed standards of rigor, as well as widely, WIDELY misunderstood/misappropriated/misrepresented by popular media.

[East Coast Hustle]

That was a great fuckin' article! I learned a little bit about these guys, and especially their explorations with the Asch conformity experiments, last year. I'm looking forward to getting back into psych classes so I can learn more, because social psychology is my favorite. One of the things that is, IMO, incredibly fascinating and important about Henrich and his colleagues' research is that it absolutely blows apart what we think we know about "human nature"; even the shorthands we use here on the board, the idea that "because monkeys" and "ook oook motherfucker", all of these "truths" about human behavior are based on and limited to WESTERN human behavior, and are not, in most cases, biologically rooted or universal at all.

Yeah, I was tickled to see it call out something that always bothered me about (what little I know about) the study of psychology. And the concept that many of our failings as a species are due to cultural imprint rather than biological hardwiring seems like it should be HUGE.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

That was a great fuckin' article! I learned a little bit about these guys, and especially their explorations with the Asch conformity experiments, last year. I'm looking forward to getting back into psych classes so I can learn more, because social psychology is my favorite. One of the things that is, IMO, incredibly fascinating and important about Henrich and his colleagues' research is that it absolutely blows apart what we think we know about "human nature"; even the shorthands we use here on the board, the idea that "because monkeys" and "ook oook motherfucker", all of these "truths" about human behavior are based on and limited to WESTERN human behavior, and are not, in most cases, biologically rooted or universal at all.

Yeah, I was tickled to see it call out something that always bothered me about (what little I know about) the study of psychology. And the concept that many of our failings as a species are due to cultural imprint rather than biological hardwiring seems like it should be HUGE.

Oh yeah, absolutely. We make a lot of decisions about how we structure society based on what we think is human nature, when what we're calling "human nature" are cultural traits fostered by a cancerous society of colonialism.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Which, I would add, we do have the option of walking away from. Not individually, but as a society.

[Cain]

One thing the article kind of skimmed past in a way that could be misleading is that it was Asch himself who challenged the universality of his results by performing his tests in different cultures. He was fascinated to find that cultures we tend to consider more socially conforming, such as the Japanese, actually succumbed less to social pressure in his experiments.

Yeah.  It seems every decade or so, some study has come along which undercuts all the basic assumptions of universal rationality, only to be then ignored by the community at large.

When they were conducting the tests on game theory at RAND, the secretaries didn't act as the tests predicted they should...so they just dropped those test results from the final reports.

And then there is all the behavioural economics tests too, some of which were done in the 70s and 80s.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

One thing the article kind of skimmed past in a way that could be misleading is that it was Asch himself who challenged the universality of his results by performing his tests in different cultures. He was fascinated to find that cultures we tend to consider more socially conforming, such as the Japanese, actually succumbed less to social pressure in his experiments.

Yeah.  It seems every decade or so, some study has come along which undercuts all the basic assumptions of universal rationality, only to be then ignored by the community at large.

When they were conducting the tests on game theory at RAND, the secretaries didn't act as the tests predicted they should...so they just dropped those test results from the final reports.

And then there is all the behavioural economics tests too, some of which were done in the 70s and 80s.

Right, and of course, how scientific is dropping unexpected/unwanted results? Not at all. But it is fairly common practice.

[Salty]

Good gravy, I have been giving our society too much credit, it seems.

[Reginald Ret]

it's a great website, as well,  Thanks for digging that out.

Seconded.
Did you read this one?
http://www.psmag.com/navigation/nature-and-technology/the-senseless-environment-crime-of-the-20th-century-russia-whaling-67774/

Clapham and Ivashchenko now think that Soviet whalers killed at least 180,000 more whales than they reported between 1948 and 1973.

Hey guys, guess why there are so few whales.

[Left]

 
...Same author's thoughts on the DSM
http://www.psmag.com/navigation/health-and-behavior/real-problem-with-dsm-study-mental-illness-58843/

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

...Same author's thoughts on the DSM
http://www.psmag.com/navigation/health-and-behavior/real-problem-with-dsm-study-mental-illness-58843/

Yes, which is why the NIMH withdrew support for the DSM last year http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/side-effects/201305/the-nimh-withdraws-support-dsm-5, with a bit of a scathing statement in explanation. http://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/2013/transforming-diagnosis.shtml