大象传媒

Did a shift in our sexual behaviour 2000 years ago lead to the rise of the west as a globally dominant force?

Matthew Syed wants to put the western mind in the spotlight. There鈥檚 a good reason for doing this. It turns out that 96% of psychological experiments have been carried out on western students. Why is this? Because western students are easy to access for a psychologist working in a university.

This might sound convenient, but there鈥檚 a problem - it turns out that westerners think in a particular way. Easily reproducible experimental findings in the west don鈥檛 stack up when you use non-western subjects. Many of our classical assertions about the workings of the human mind are based entirely on the western human mind.

Matthew digs into the deep roots of the western mind and asks whether a ban on cousin marriage triggered a surge of innovation in the west as tribal boundaries broke down.

It鈥檚 an intriguing theory, but does it stack up? Matthew is determined to find out.

Producer: Robbie MacInnes

Music, Sound Design and Mix: Benbrick

Series Editor: Russell Finch

Executive Producer: Sean Glynn and Max O'Brien

A Novel production for 大象传媒 Radio 4, first broadcast in 2021.

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