Towards a Cognitive Science of the Human: Cross-Cultural Approaches and Their Urgency

Abstract

While a major aim of cognitive science is to understand human cognition, our conclusions are based on unrepresentative samples of the world's population. A new wave of cross-cultural cognitive science has sought to remedy this with studies that are increasing in scope, scale, and visibility. Here, I review the state of this new wave of research. The portrait of human cognition that emerges is one of variations on a theme, with species-typical capacities shaped by culture and individual experience. The new wave has expanded our understanding of processes underlying human variation and cumulative cultural change, including mechanisms of social learning and cultural transmission. Less consensus has been reached, however, on the cognitive foundations of human nature. The promise of cross-cultural cognitive science will not be fully realized unless we continue to be more inclusive of the world's populations and strive for a more complete cognitive portrait of our species.

Keywords: WEIRD; cognitive science; cross-cultural comparisons; human nature; representativeness.