Then there is the issue of how broadly we can expect a study’s findings to apply. When can we extrapolate what we find from one population to other populations? One aim of social psychology is to uncover universals of human cognition, yet a vast majority of studies in social psychology are conducted on what Joe Henrich and colleagues have dubbed WEIRD populations: Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic. Of these studies, most are conducted on the cheapest, most convenient population available: college students who have to serve as study subjects for course credit.
