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Published on: August 18, 2023
Cultural evolution needed to complete the Grossmann theory
Shinobu Kitayama1, Amelie Rossmaier1
1Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA kitayama@umich.edu; https://lsa.umich.edu/psych/people/faculty/kitayama.html arossmai@umich.edu; https://lsa.umich.edu/psych/people/graduate-students/arossman.html.
Abstract:
Grossmann used evolutionary analysis to argue for the adaptive nature of fearfulness. This analysis, however, falls short of addressing why negative affectivity is maladaptive in contemporary Western societies. Here, we fill the gap by documenting the implied cultural variation and considering cultural (rather than biological) evolution over the last 10,000 years to explain the observed cultural variation.
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