Findings drawn from Western, educated, industrialised, rich, democratic subjects generalise poorly to humanity.
Henrich, Heine and Norenzayan highlighted sampling data showing that 96% of subjects in the top psychology journals came from Western industrialised countries holding about 12% of the world's population. Several classic effects, including some visual illusions, vary substantially across societies.
In practice
- A consumer study run on undergraduates in one city sets the design of a product sold in ninety countries.
- A pricing intuition that holds for salaried monthly earners fails in a market where most income arrives daily and in cash.