102 – WEIRD Science (rebroadcast)

Is psychology too WEIRD? That’s what this episode’s guest, psychologist Steven J. Heine suggested when he and his colleagues published a paper showing that psychology wasn’t the study of the human mind, but the study of one kind of human mind, the sort generated by the brains that happen to be conveniently located near the places where research is usually conducted — those of North American college undergraduates.

They called them the WEIRDest people in the world, short for Western, Education, Industrial, Rich, and Democratic — the kind of people who make up less than 15 percent of the world’s population.

In this episode, you’ll learn why it took psychology so long to figure out it was studying outliers, and what it means for the future of the science.

 

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Links and Sources

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Individual reactions to stress predict performance during a critical aviation incident

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We agree it’s WEIRD, but is it WEIRD enough?

Cognitive modulation of olfactory processing

Photo: Wikimedia Commons