{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Born to be cultured","description":"Welcome back! Today\u2019s episode is a conversation with Cristine Legare. Cristine is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on how our minds allow us to do culture\u2014to learn it, to create it, and to pass it on. Among other things, we talk about cumulative culture and the human capacities for imitation and innovation. We talk about the power of ritual and about thorny questions surrounding human uniqueness. We touch on work that Cristine and her team have done in Vanuatu. And we muse about the problems facing psychology\u2014in particular the so-called WEIRD problem. For those who may not know, this is the issue of psychologists unduly focusing on a thin slice of humanity\u2014namely, Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) folks. I found Cristine\u2019s perspective on this issue\u2014and really on all these issues\u2014super insightful. Without further ado, here is my conversation with Dr. Cristine Legare. Hope you enjoy it! And please be well.   A transcript of this episode is available here.    Notes and links 2:35 \u2013 An article about \u201ccumulative culture.\u201d 3:25 \u2013There is debate about whether any non-human animals show evidence of cumulative culture. Here is one review of the topic. 6:30 \u2013 A paper by Dr. Legare and a colleague on imitation and innovation as \u201cdual engines of cultural learning.\u201d 10:53 \u2013 One of Dr. Legare\u2019s studies examining children\u2019s flexible understanding of when to imitate faithfully. 13:07 \u2013 A popular article about the puzzle of why chimps in Zambia started to put grass in their ears. The primary research was reported here. 14:25 \u2013 The literature on so-called \u201cover-imitation\u201d is substantial. Here is a recent review. 19:14 \u2013 An encyclopedia article by Dr. Legare and a colleague on ritual. See also their paper on the social functions of rituals. 25:45 \u2013 Here is the original paper report on the \u201cillusion of explanatory depth.\u201d 28:42 \u2013 A paper on how a culture\u2019s history of migration affects how often its members smile. 34:45 \u2013 This article describes the puzzle of chimpanzees throwing rocks at trees. 40:18 \u2013 This paper by Joe Henrich and colleagues is the source of the acronym WEIRD\u2014that is, Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic\u2014and is one of the most cited and discussed papers in the last decade of psychology. Here is a recent popular article on the current state of the WEIRD problem. Finally, see this paper by Dr. Legare and colleagues about the WEIRD bias in developmental psychology. 49:00 \u2013 Dr. Legare has done a number of studies in Vanuatu, a culturally diverse archipelago in the South Pacific. 49:32 \u2013 A study by Dr. Legare and colleagues comparing triadic interactions in the US and in Vanuatu. 55:51 \u2013 Barbara Rogoff, mentioned here, has done a range of important work on learning styles across cultures. See, for example, her book, The Cultural Nature of Human Development. 59:55 \u2013 A study by Dr. Legare and colleagues showing that adults in the US and Vanuatu differ in how they evaluate the intelligence of conforming vs non-conforming children. Dr. Legare\u2019s end-of-show recommendations: A good summary of some of the research we discussed by Dr. Legare and her colleagues can be found here. See also the following books: The Secret of Our Success (2018), by Joe Henrich Cognitive Gadgets (2018), by Cecilia Heyes A Different Kind of Animal (2018), by Robert Boyd Minds Make Societies (2018), by Pascal Boyer   The best ways to keep up with Dr. Legare\u2019s research: http:\/\/www.cristinelegare.com\/   Many Minds is a project of the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute (DISI) (https:\/\/www.diverseintelligencessummer.com\/), which is made possible by a generous grant from the Templeton World Charity Foundation to UCLA. It is hosted by Kensy Cooperrider, with creative support from DISI Directors Erica Cartmill and Jacob Foster, and Associate Director Hilda Loury. Our artwork is by Ben Oldroyd (https:\/\/www.mayhilldesigns.co.uk\/). Our transcripts are created by Sarah Dopierala (https:\/\/sarahdopierala.wordpress.com\/). You can subscribe to Many Minds on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play\u2014or wherever you like to listen to podcasts. We welcome your comments, questions, and suggestions. Feel free to email us at: manymindspodcast@gmail.com. For updates about the show, follow us on Twitter: @ManyMindsPod. ","author_name":"Many Minds","author_url":"https:\/\/disi.org\/manyminds\/","html":"