This is an interesting post about how most of our studies of human nature, psychology and even medicine are based on majority middle and upper class white males. The reason it is important to study a broad range of demographics and not just the “default” white male is made clear in this post. The Stanford Prison Experiment and Lord of the Flies are good examples. This leads to stuff that we consider to be universal facts about human nature being just plain wrong:
Here is the link to the article referenced: WE AREN’T THE WORLD. It’s about how Joe Henrich and his colleagues are shaking the foundations of psychology and economics – and hoping to change the way social scientists think about human behavior and culture.
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Many years ago, as a student at the university of Iowa, I participated in an experiment in the department of psychology.
It was a game played between 2 people who couldn’t see each other. Very quickly, it became apparent that if you played co-operatively, you could both get the highest possible scores, but there would be no “winner.”
By playing competitively, one person could “win”, but neither could attain the highest possible score.
By playing co-operatively, while the other played competitively, you were bound to lose, so I lost. But it seemed so stupid to me to play competitively which ultimately made you both losers, especially since there were no actual prizes.
At the end the monitor stared at me for several seconds, before saying that he had never seen anyone play the game the way I did.
The vast majority of the students at that time were white middle class, as was I, a female participant.