How children learn culture — and create it, with Dorsa Amir, PhD

Culture profoundly shapes human cognition and development, extending beyond learned beliefs into basic processes like visual perception and decision-making. Dr. Dorsa Amir, an Assistant Professor at Duke University, demonstrates through her research with the Shuar people of the Ecuadorian Amazon that cognitive developmental timelines are not universal but are instead highly sensitive to local environmental and social incentives. For instance, preferences regarding risk and patience vary significantly based on a community's level of market integration. Furthermore, children’s peer groups serve as vital engines for generating "peer culture," which allows communities to adapt to changing environments. By comparing diverse societies, this research challenges the "WEIRD" (Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic) bias in psychology, revealing that many assumed human universals are actually products of specific cultural contexts, highlighting the necessity of cross-cultural study to understand the full spectrum of human cognitive diversity.