Table of Contents

PREFACE..........................................................................................................................................................xi
PRELUDE: YOUR BRAIN HAS BEEN MODIFIED..................................................................................03

What God Wants..........................................................................................................................................................07

The Histories of Religions, Biologies, and Psychologies...............................................................16

                     Part I: The Evolution of Societies and Psychologies

CHAPTER 1: WEIRD PSYCHOLOGY.........................................................................................................21

Really, Who Are You?................................................................................................................................................24

Marshmallows Come to Those Who Wait................................................................................................38

UN Diplomats Get Parking Tickets.................................................................................................................41

Obsessed with Intentions......................................................................................................................................49

Missing the Forest........................................................................................................................................................52

The Rest of the Iceberg...........................................................................................................................................55

CHAPTER 2: MAKING A CULTURAL SPECIES......................................................................................59

Evolved to Learn...........................................................................................................................................................61

Evolving Societies........................................................................................................................................................68

Avenues into Your Mind...........................................................................................................................................82

CHAPTER 3: CLANS, STATES AND WHY YOU CAN’T GET HERE FROM THERE......................87

How Ilahita Got Big......................................................................................................................................................88

When, How, and Why Did Societies Scale Up?...................................................................................103

Getting to Premodern States..............................................................................................................................112

Going End Around.......................................................................................................................................................121

CHAPTER 4: THE GODS ARE WATCHING. BEHAVE!........................................................................123

Moralizing Gods and Contingent Afterlives............................................................................................128

The Evolution of Gods and Rituals.................................................................................................................139

Hell, Free Will, and Moral Universalism.....................................................................................................146

Persuasive Martyrs and Boring Rituals.......................................................................................................148

The Launch Pad............................................................................................................................................................151

                     Part II: The Origins of WEIRD People

CHAPTER 5: WEIRD FAMILIES................................................................................................................155

Dissolving the Traditional Family.....................................................................................................................159

The Carolingians, Manorialism, and the European Marriage Pattern..................................186

Downstream Transformations............................................................................................................................191

CHAPTER 6: PSYCHOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES, FAMILIES, AND THE CHURCH......................193

Kinship Intensity and Psychology...................................................................................................................194

The Church Altered Kinship and Changed Psychology................................................................224

Opening the Floodgates.......................................................................................................................................230

CHAPTER 7: EUROPE AND ASIA............................................................................................................233

The Church's Footprints.........................................................................................................................................234

Psychological Differences Within China and India............................................................................244

Fertile Ground................................................................................................................................................................252

CHAPTER 8: WEIRD MONOGAMY..........................................................................................................255

A "Peculiar" Institution..............................................................................................................................................258

Polygyny's Math Problem16................................................................................................................................263

A Testosterone Suppression System...........................................................................................................268

Trust, Teamwork, and Crime................................................................................................................................274

Putting the Pieces Together................................................................................................................................281

                     Part III: New Institutions, New Psychologies

CHAPTER 9: OF COMMERCE AND COOPERATION..........................................................................287

Market Integration and Impersonal Prosociality.................................................................................290

"No Hui, No Market Towns"..................................................................................................................................301

The Commercial and Urban Revolutions.................................................................................................307

Round Up..........................................................................................................................................................................320

CHAPTER 10: DOMESTICATING THE COMPETITION.......................................................................322

War, Religion, and Psychology.........................................................................................................................322

Europeans Made War, and War Made Them WEIRDer................................................................332

Taming Intergroup Conflict.................................................................................................................................340

When and Why?.........................................................................................................................................................350

Harnessing the Power of Competition.......................................................................................................357

CHAPTER 11: MARKET MENTALITIES..................................................................................................360

How Work Became Virtuous.............................................................................................................................367

Be Yourself: The Origins of WEIRD Personalities..............................................................................379

It's Big, but How Big?..............................................................................................................................................390

                     Part IV: Birthing the Modern World

CHAPTER 12: LAW, SCIENCE AND RELIGION....................................................................................395

Universal Laws, Conflicting Principles, and Individual Rights..................................................398

Representative Governments and Democracy...................................................................................407

The WEIRDest Religion..........................................................................................................................................415

Dark Matter or Enlightenment?........................................................................................................................427

CHAPTER 13: ESCAPE VELOCITY..........................................................................................................430

Writing Up the Collective Brain......................................................................................................................442

More Inventive?..........................................................................................................................................................460

Psychology and Innovation in the Modern World...........................................................................465

Escaping the Trap....................................................................................................................................................466

CHAPTER 14: THE DARK MATTER OF HISTORY..............................................................................469

Guns, Germs, and Other Factors....................................................................................................................474

Globalization and Its Discontents.................................................................................................................484