Why are some societies Western, Educated, Individualistic, Rich, and Democratic (“WEIRD”) while others are the opposite? Why are some nations rich and others poor?
Why are some societies expansive, placing trust in strangers, building lasting institutions that rely on impersonal relationships, and fostering invention and creativity — while others, more inward-facing, preserve costly and unproductive old ways and favor family members over everyone else?
According to Joseph Henrich, an anthropologist who wrote an immensely influential book on the topic, the answer to these questions is very strange. It goes back to a decision by the Western (now called Roman Catholic) Church in the fourth century A.D. to prohibit cousin marriages. In a startling example of the butterfly effect, this decision, according to Henrich, caused the world to split into WEIRD and traditional cultures. Descended from those who weren’t allowed to marry even distant cousins so they had to search far afield for mates, the WEIRD (so the theory goes) created Western civilization.
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