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He had to save the nation from its own moral failings because other men were unable to contain their sexual passions.
Elaine Tyler May • Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era
there is still, in varying degree, ignorance, with prejudice and unbridled emotion."
Charlotte Gilman • Herland
the law codes of most European nations in the early Middle Ages operated almost entirely on the basis of fines. The principle of wergild, as it was called, gave each person a cash value; if a murder took place, the murderer had to pay the family of the victim that cash value as wergild for the death. Lesser injuries and insults called for lesser fe
... See moreJohn Michael Greer • The Wealth of Nature: Economics as If Survival Mattered
the reputational damage and punishment associated with norm violations would have favored a psychology that rapidly recognizes the existence of social rules, accurately infers the details of these rules, readily judges the compliance of others, and, at least partially, internalizes the local norms as fast-and-frugal heuristics for navigating the so
... See moreJoseph Henrich • The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous
Joseph Henrich • The Weirdest People In The World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous
America had once been an archipelago of small towns in which hierarchy commanded deference and local opinion bounded behavior. But the country’s extraordinary social and geographic mobility was creating a horizontal society. When every man or woman is free to constantly recreate himself or herself, one never knows who one should be or, just as frig
... See moreCharles R. Morris • The Tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy
The Fairness/cheating foundation evolved in response to the adaptive challenge of reaping the rewards of cooperation without getting exploited. It makes us sensitive to indications that another person is likely to be a good (or bad) partner for collaboration and reciprocal altruism. It makes us want to shun or punish cheaters.
Jonathan Haidt • The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
Another study has shown that low maternal education is the single most powerful factor leading to criminality.