My neice went through a phase of telling everyone ‘You’re weird!’ when she was about 7 years old and according to this research she may have been right. WEIRD stands for Western, Educated, Industrial, Rich and Democratic which describes a very small proportion of the world’s population. Why does this matter? Because along with the characteristics featured in the acronym, this small minority also shares a very different world view than the rest of the world and this may have some profound implications in this era of globalisation. If nothing else, it underlines the potential weakness of many research studies in psychology for example which tends to rely on WEIRD people as their research guinea pigs. Not only WEIRD but usually young, male, psychology students. So how much can this narrow segment really tell us about the rest of the world?
One of the important differences between the world view of WEIRD people and non-WEIRD people centres on the individual … or not. WEIRD people tend to relate their experience always to themselves whereas non-WEIRD people tend to relate their experiences to their environment and to their community. The film below demonstrates this by showing what happens when a Namibian child is taught a simple dance. Asked to turn around and repeat the dance, he repeats it so that it is identical in space rather than identical from his perspective.
So apart from needing to revise some psychology theories what does this mean? When I read this I was researching some background about how to present yourself online and I could immediately see that the way in which WEIRD people present themselves online will not chime with the rest of the world especially if you are trying to reach new markets through online media. Testimonials (see here why Cindy King does not have them on her international website), winners and losers, corporate superheros and charismatic CEOs are all of dubious value when trying to connect with the wider, non-WEIRD world.
The differences also extend to notions of justice and perception which would both be critical to being seen as offering a good deal and how your service or product is presented. I must say that this article left me with many unanswered questions about the best way forward in a globalised digital world and made me question whether we are right to assume that the basic business model is the one we have been used to so far and that it reflects the western way of doing things.