[ExI] Clark abstract

[Mirco Romanato]

hkhenson ha scritto:

> BTW, one of the amusing things about the parent 
> thread was the ethnic origin of the Church of England Bishop that wrote it.

> Which brings up a recursive point.  What is the 
> evolutionary origin of the reluctance in some 
> groups to make reference to ethnic or cultural 
> groups?  It can be accounted for as a learned 
> element of culture, but even there you have to 
> account for why people would spread this 
> particular idea.  Considering the mess Watson got 
> in recently, the mental hooks must be into some 
> really motivating part of the brain.  Anyone for some fMRI?

Without fMRI, an experiment with US students in an University showed 
that the (self labeled) democrats and independents were more racist than 
the republicans. They were more generous and racist in the same time.
The republicans gave less money but they consistently were unaffected 
from the skin color of the recipient. The democrats gave more (before 
and after) but they were effected by the skin color of the recipients.
Republicans were equally sterner color-blinded, democrats were generous 
racists.


My theory is that:
1) People used to commerce is marginally interested in the culture of 
the other people and less prone to discriminate unknown people about 
culture, faith and so. This would be a damaging behavior, because they 
need to keep good relations with all possible buyers and sellers. So, 
less racist people are selected for. This process is stronger in more 
complex, more large societies, where individuals need to live with many 
more unknown people than rural, tribal societies.
2) Being not judgmental about unknown people would be damaging if not 
coupled with a sterner standard with all people (known and unknown). So 
sterner people are selected for.
3) These traits make people sterner but they will discriminate mainly 
about behaviors not skin color or culture; They could be prejudiced, but 
they would change their mind if proved wrong.
4) The racists are disadvantaged if they act in a direct manner, so they 
develop new ways to use the anti-racists mindset against the not racists 
(affirmative actions come in mind, politically correct speak and so on).
The racists are able to exploit the third party punishing urge developed 
in more complex groups with these indirected tactics.

Mirco
-- 
[Intangible capital is] the preponderant form of wealth.
When we look at the shares of intangible capital across income classes, 
you see it goes from about 60 percent in low-income countries to 80 
percent in high-income countries.
That accords very much with the notion that what really makes countries 
wealthy is not the bits and pieces, it's the brainpower, and the 
institutions that harness that brainpower.
It's the skills more than the rocks and minerals.
—Kirk Hamilton
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