We dispute the level of analysis Henrich et al. have employed to conclude that members of Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) societies are non-representative of the human species and to determine, more generally, whether an observed cultural difference contradicts a universalist argument. Borrowing from the biological lexicon, our position is as follows: Analysis of difference at the level of a narrow phenotypic behavioral-expression precludes detection of human universals that operate at the level of an abstract genotypic process. Stated otherwise, When Researchers Overlook uNderlying Genotypes (our acronym WRONG), they will fail to detect universal processes that generate observed differences in expression (Kobayashi & Brown Reference Kobayashi and Brown2003). We first frame our position with an example and then reify our position with our own cross-cultural research on self-enhancement and self-esteem – phenomena from which Henrich et al. derived their WEIRD conclusion.

The human diet exemplifies our position (Sedikides & Gregg Reference Sedikides and Gregg2008). When considered at the narrow level of observed behavior, human societies appear extraordinarily different in regard to what they eat (e.g., a Kosher diet precludes pork; a Jain diet is vegetarian). When considered more broadly, however, the diverse diets are connected and assimilated by a universal need for sustenance. It would be faulty indeed to conclude that the need for sustenance is less pronounced, if not absent, in one society because it consumes less, if not any, of the foods consumed by another society – what is consumed depends on factors such as climate and custom. Our point, of course, is that human universals operate at the abstract level of process-and-function, and the expression of the universal emerges in conjunction with contextual considerations (Schlenker Reference Schlenker1974).

To be clear, we do not oppose the study of concrete behavior. Cataloguing behavioral differences across societies certainly contributes to understanding the human condition. However, the presence of a behavioral difference per se is not evidence contrary to a universalist argument. The necessary consideration is whether the observed difference is produced by a process or function common across societies.

Henrich et al. suggest that WEIRD societies are peculiar, in part, because they uniquely possess positive self-views. Such a conclusion, however, is a consequence of the WRONG strategy. Our own cross-cultural programs of research on the self-enhancement motive (i.e., need to maintain a positive sense of self) and self-esteem (i.e., an affective self-evaluation) indicate that a positive self-view is a human tendency.

Our primary studies and meta-analytic syntheses indicate that both Westerners and Easterners self-enhance, but they do so on different attribute dimensions.Footnote ¹ Westerners self-enhance (i.e., deem self as superior to peers) on attributes relevant to individualism, and Easterners self-enhance on attributes relevant to collectivism. This is because Westerners deem individualism, and Easterners deem collectivism, as important. Here a common process (self-enhancing on important attributes) is differentially expressed (individualism vs. collectivism), because culture affects the expression, not the presence, of the enhancement motive (Brown & Kobayashi Reference Brown and Kobayashi2002; Sedikides et al. Reference Sedikides, Gaertner and Toguchi2003; Sedikides et al. Reference Sedikides, Gaertner and Vevea2005; Reference Sedikides, Gaertner and Vevea2007a; Reference Sedikides, Gaertner and Vevea2007b). Furthermore, that common process has the same functional association with psychological adjustment in both cultures: Self-enhancing on important attributes promotes better adjustment (e.g., greater well-being, less depression,) among Easterners and Westerners (Gaertner et al. Reference Gaertner, Sedikides and Chang2008; Kobayashi & Brown Reference Kobayashi and Brown2003; O'Mara et al. Reference O'Mara, Gaertner, Sedikides, Zhou and Liu2009). Therefore, when assessed at the abstract level of process and function, members of WEIRD societies are quite normal in their striving for a positive self-view.

As Henrich et al. suggest, Eastern samples typically provide lower explicit reports of self-esteem than do Western samples (Heine et al. Reference Heine, Lehman, Markus and Kitayama1999). Such explicit reports, however, are compromised by a pervasive modesty norm in Eastern cultures (Brown, in press; Kurman Reference Kurman2003). Indeed, the cultural differences occur in reports of cognitive self-evaluation, not affective self-regard, and these differences vanish when modesty is statistically controlled (Cai et al. Reference Cai, Brown, Deng and Oakes2007). Similarly, cultural differences in self-esteem vanish when self-esteem is assessed with implicit measures that circumvent modesty norms (e.g., Yamaguchi et al. Reference Yamaguchi, Greenwald, Banaji, Murakami, Chen, Shiomura, Kobayashi, Cai and Krendl2007). Furthermore, self-esteem reveals the same functional patterns across cultures. Self-esteem predicts greater well-being and lower depression in the East (Cai et al. Reference Cai, Wu and Brown2009), just as it does in the West (Taylor & Brown Reference Taylor and Brown1988). Likewise, self-esteem bolsters against threats to self-worth in both cultures such that failure feedback more strongly erodes immediate feelings of worth for low rather than high self-esteem persons (Brown et al. Reference Brown, Cai, Oakes and Deng2009). Hence, when assessed at the abstract level of process and function, members of WEIRD societies are quite normal in their possession of a positive-self view.

In summary, testing human universals at the level of narrow behavioral differences between societies is the WRONG strategy. Human universals operate at the abstract level of process and function, and such universals can generate observed differences. We conclude with application of our argument to the man-to-boy insemination rituals of New Guinea with which Henrich et al. began their article. At the narrow level of the observed behavior, the rituals seem bizarre in regard to WEIRD standards. When considered more abstractly in terms of process or function (i.e., a social practice marking a boy's passage to manhood), the rituals connect with coming-of-age rituals practiced in other societies, such as the Bar and Bat Mitzvah, Credo-baptism, Debutante Ball, and Sweet Sixteen. The observed behaviors certainly differ, but the underlying psychological process is the same.