Here is my attempt at summarizing the quoted article:
Personal guilt is defined as shame aimed inward
Some cultures are based on guilt, others on shame
One way to measure guilt might be murder rate [the author provides little justification for this]
Another suggested metric is the corruption perception index. The author expects guilt-dominant cultures to have low corruption, and, unsurprisingly, finds the confirming evidence.
Changeling tales are conjectured to be a tool to relieve the guilt a family feels over abandoning a sickly newborn. The author gives a long and rambling comparison of changeling tales from different cultures and eras, from ancient Greece to modern Africa.
The author concludes with musings on genetic and cultural origins of the “guilt culture”.
I must say that I have low confidence in amateurish research like this one, especially from a person proudly proclaiming “I actually believe in aliens and reincarnation”. But it did make me think about guilt vs shame (and other cultural fictions controlling people behavior, like pride, honor etc.). Whether there is a reliable way to rate cultures by guilt prevalence and whether such a rating is an interesting metric remains to be seen. The author’s case is certainly far from convincing.
Stories about changelings replacing babies and the recommended course of action being basically to expose the child is not a human universal, they are found only in European cultures. These rely more heavily on guilt and less on shame to regulate behavior than most other human societies. This may not be a coincidence. The stories may represent a ready made rationalization to reduce guilt from infanticide. Only common problems acquire common solutions like this.
Will you reverse your downvote? Also if I may ask when did writing a summary for a post, a link post even become a LW norm?
Sure, downvote removed. And, while writing a summary may not be a norm, it ought to be, and I try to do my part in nudging the forum in that direction.
I don’t know, but it kind of does seem to be a norm. Orthogonally, though, when did it become a norm that you should only downvote things that violate LW norms, as opposed to things that violate rules that you want to be norms?
Downvoted for not providing a summary.
Here is my attempt at summarizing the quoted article:
Personal guilt is defined as shame aimed inward
Some cultures are based on guilt, others on shame
One way to measure guilt might be murder rate [the author provides little justification for this]
Another suggested metric is the corruption perception index. The author expects guilt-dominant cultures to have low corruption, and, unsurprisingly, finds the confirming evidence.
Changeling tales are conjectured to be a tool to relieve the guilt a family feels over abandoning a sickly newborn. The author gives a long and rambling comparison of changeling tales from different cultures and eras, from ancient Greece to modern Africa.
The author concludes with musings on genetic and cultural origins of the “guilt culture”.
I must say that I have low confidence in amateurish research like this one, especially from a person proudly proclaiming “I actually believe in aliens and reincarnation”. But it did make me think about guilt vs shame (and other cultural fictions controlling people behavior, like pride, honor etc.). Whether there is a reliable way to rate cultures by guilt prevalence and whether such a rating is an interesting metric remains to be seen. The author’s case is certainly far from convincing.
Stories about changelings replacing babies and the recommended course of action being basically to expose the child is not a human universal, they are found only in European cultures. These rely more heavily on guilt and less on shame to regulate behavior than most other human societies. This may not be a coincidence. The stories may represent a ready made rationalization to reduce guilt from infanticide. Only common problems acquire common solutions like this.
Will you reverse your downvote? Also if I may ask when did writing a summary for a post, a link post even become a LW norm?
Sure, downvote removed. And, while writing a summary may not be a norm, it ought to be, and I try to do my part in nudging the forum in that direction.
Just wanted to check because I’ve been inactive for a while.
I don’t know, but it kind of does seem to be a norm. Orthogonally, though, when did it become a norm that you should only downvote things that violate LW norms, as opposed to things that violate rules that you want to be norms?