East Asian personality may stem from Ice Age Siberia 20000 yrs ago
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East Asian personality may stem from Ice Age Siberia 20000 yrs ago
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Re: East Asian personality may stem from Ice Age Siberia 20000 yrs ago
#2[dead]
Re: East Asian personality may stem from Ice Age Siberia 20000 yrs ago
#3> I enthusiastically applied to various PhD programs, but was unceremoniously rejected, and upon reaching out was met with “…engaging in outdated notions of environmental determinism.” “…you’re playing with fire by suggesting evolved cognitive differences… ” “The political climate on our campus is highly unfavorable for these areas of research.” “…this is probably the worst time in history to be studying such topics.” “…you will likely encounter extreme difficulties in securing grants.”
This is incredibly sad.
Re: East Asian personality may stem from Ice Age Siberia 20000 yrs ago
#4> I enthusiastically applied to various PhD programs, but was unceremoniously rejected, and upon reaching out was met with “…engaging in outdated notions of environmental determinism.” “…you’re playing with fire by suggesting evolved cognitive differences… ” “The political climate on our campus is highly unfavorable for these areas of research.” “…this is probably the worst time in history to be studying such topics.…
Science has more than just a replication issue. One of many reasons that public trust in institutions has been almost entirely eroded.
Re: East Asian personality may stem from Ice Age Siberia 20000 yrs ago
#5> I enthusiastically applied to various PhD programs, but was unceremoniously rejected, and upon reaching out was met with “…engaging in outdated notions of environmental determinism.” “…you’re playing with fire by suggesting evolved cognitive differences… ” “The political climate on our campus is highly unfavorable for these areas of research.” “…this is probably the worst time in history to be studying such topics.…
Is it? Maybe this is just a terrible paper that reads like 19th century theories about Aryans. Those responses sound like they are pointing to a climate of intellectual repression, but...there's a reason we don't have endowed chairs in phrenology or palmistry or astral projection. And if someone proposed such a thing, the responses might not look too open-minded.
As they say, it's good to be open-minded, but not so open-minded that your brain falls out.
Re: East Asian personality may stem from Ice Age Siberia 20000 yrs ago
#6Direct link to the article this is about: https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2025-88410-001.html ("Arctic Instincts? The Late Pleistocene Arctic Origins of East Asian Psychology")
Re: East Asian personality may stem from Ice Age Siberia 20000 yrs ago
#7> I enthusiastically applied to various PhD programs, but was unceremoniously rejected, and upon reaching out was met with “…engaging in outdated notions of environmental determinism.” “…you’re playing with fire by suggesting evolved cognitive differences… ” “The political climate on our campus is highly unfavorable for these areas of research.” “…this is probably the worst time in history to be studying such topics.…
Is it? Maybe this is just a terrible paper that reads like 19th century theories about Aryans. Those responses sound like they are pointing to a climate of intellectual repression, but...there's a reason we don't have endowed chairs in phrenology or palmistry or astral projection. And if someone proposed such a thing, the responses might not look too open-minded. As they say, it's good to be open-minded, but not so o…
What you're doing by comparing it to phrenology and astral projection is just reductio ad absurdum.
It's not controversial that some personality traits might have genetic roots. It's also not controversial that humans who evolved in different regions have slightly different genetics.
His research combines the two.
Re: East Asian personality may stem from Ice Age Siberia 20000 yrs ago
#8> I enthusiastically applied to various PhD programs, but was unceremoniously rejected, and upon reaching out was met with “…engaging in outdated notions of environmental determinism.” “…you’re playing with fire by suggesting evolved cognitive differences… ” “The political climate on our campus is highly unfavorable for these areas of research.” “…this is probably the worst time in history to be studying such topics.…
Science has more than just a replication issue. One of many reasons that public trust in institutions has been almost entirely eroded.
Sorry, I don't follow. The man has no track record of previous research and applied to several Ph.D programs; of course he was rejected.
Good on him for sticking with his hypothesis far enough to research it thoroughly, write it up, and publish it in a peer-reviewed journal, and now that he has done that work, he might start to turn heads in a Ph.D program. But otherwise, rejection from Ph.D programs after applying with an idea and no credentials is a bit like saying "Based on my new theory of radiation-proof ultra-thin materials, I applied to NASA, ESA, and JAXA for a head researcher position but was unceremoniously rejected." Of course you were, mate. You have no demonstrable history in the field. They want to see at least a working spacesuit prototype first.
Re: East Asian personality may stem from Ice Age Siberia 20000 yrs ago
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is it? Maybe this is just a terrible paper that reads like 19th century theories about Aryans. Those responses sound like they are pointing to a climate of intellectual repression, but...there's a reason we don't have endowed chairs in phrenology or palmistry or astral projection. And if someone proposed such a thing, the responses might not look too open-minded. As they say, it's good to be open-minded, but not so o…
What you're doing by comparing it to phrenology and astral projection is just reductio ad absurdum. It's not controversial that some personality traits might have genetic roots. It's also not controversial that humans who evolved in different regions have slightly different genetics. His research combines the two.
But at first glance at the thesis of the research project, there's every reason to doubt the two combined would make any sense here. Among the immediate initial questions it raises is "Most East Asians don't live in subzero temperatures any more, so why do they still act that way?"
One has to remember how many absolute crackpots institutions of higher learning have write in every year. Now that he's done the heavy lifting on his own, there's a paper that can be discussed, but no shame on any institution that saw a nobody in the field coming in with an idea likely to fail to hold any water that went "Yeah, we're going to invest zero resources into that."
Comparison to phrenology, for an unknown quantity, isn't absurd; it's kind of the status quo for universities getting solicitations from strangers. That channel of communication is where the perpetual motion machines, time cubes, and proposals to go find the resting place of Atlantis come from.
Re: East Asian personality may stem from Ice Age Siberia 20000 yrs ago
#10> I then wondered, is this mere coincidence, or do extreme cold/polar environments cause this in people? I recalled Russia had gas workers in the Arctic regions and tried to look up papers on it. It led me down a rabbit hole of discovering entire troves of scientific literature from various nations that had polar programs, with tons of data on polar personnel psychology, most conveniently refined into personnel selection criteria that shows which traits are the most desirable in candidates for polar work or expeditions.
Cause it in individuals? Or select for it through evolution?
If the former, there's no genetic component here, and the effect should vanish as soon as you get somewhere warm.
If it's the latter, then it can't cause it in individuals who happen to work there over local-winter, right?