The WEIRDest People in the World

Henrich, Joseph

religiously inspired drive for public schools helped make Prussia


religiously inspired drive for public schools helped make Prussia


to Adam Smith, and probably midwifed the Scottish


The very notion that every individual should read and interpret ancient sacred texts for himself or—worse—herself, instead of simply deferring to the great sages, would have seemed somewhere between outrageous and dangerous in most premodern societies.


Other populations focus more on actions and outcomes over what’s “inside.”