David Sun

Arctic instincts: The personality of East Asians Is Confucianism a cause or a consequence of Chinese psychology?

Arctic instincts: The personality of East Asians

'lactose tolerance genes in Europeans are a fraction of genetic variation yet altered the course of history... Arcticist traits may underlie habits like stifled expression & social rigidity...'

www.aporiamagazine.com/p/arctic-ins...

Check out the latest breakthrough in cross-cultural psychology!

bsky.app/profile/arct...

Are calm introverts (like East Asians) uniquely suited for Space travel & Mars missions? Why deep space programs select for emotionally suppressive, agreeable, hardworking introverts

Check out the latest in cross-cultural psychology! I show evidence that underrepresented groups like Tibetans, Papuans, Sherpas, Amish, Finns, Nepalis, Mongols, and many East Asian groups have the ideal personality complexes for space and mars missions.

open.substack.com/pub/davidsun...

East Asian personality may stem from Ice Age Siberia 20000 yrs ago

East Asian personality may stem from Ice Age Siberia 20000 yrs ago

#HackerNews

https://davidsun.substack.com/p/the-origins-of-arcticism-theory

She blocked me within one minute of this post. Very convincing counterargument

I am the author of this paper. You are invited to write a rebuttal or provide counterevidence. There's plenty of ad homs against me in your thread yet no counterargument or counterevidence.

its linked in the first thread post

Hi Kristina, bsky recommended you as an expert in Chinese philosophy. Any thoughts on this new paper proposing ecological (arctic) origins of Confucianism and Chinese thought? bsky.app/profile/arct...

hey Brendan, bsky recommend you as a sino expert. Any thoughts on this new theory of ecological origins of Confucianism? bsky.app/profile/arct...

Outsider's Edge | David Sun | Substack Challenging the foundations of the most complacent sciences, ideologies, and philosophies with overlooked interdisciplinary and new empirical evidence. Focus on cultural & evo psychology, metascience...

I will be testing the foundations of other dominant models of psychology,& incumbent theories, and will release the earliest unpublished research, hypotheses, coauthor requests, and commentary on my new free substack davidsun.substack.com Subscribe for early access!

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If you have thoughts on the paper, the journal is accepting academic-level commentaries w June 30 deadline, max 15 pg dbl space incl references. Feel free to invite other scholars to read & comment. If interested, DM me for editor's email.

a palm tree on a sandy beach with the ocean behind it ALT: a palm tree on a sandy beach with the ocean behind it

Paper out soon on the effects of ancestral tropics and heat stress, and temperate habitats on other major ancestry folks

Perhaps humans do not perceive life & our modern world as it is, but rather as a cumulative reflection of all the diverse habitats our ancestors survived in.

The well known distinctly EA combo of sociocultural problems (excessive conformity, emotional repression, death by overwork, shyness, image obsession, introversion, risk aversion, social sensitivity etc) may be mainly remnants of ancient Arcticism, & not Confucianism/agriculture.

Is this environmental/geographic determinism? No, recent climato-econ & socioecology research shows some environments can be more deterministic than others. Especially ones like the Arctic whose selective pressures caused severe bottleneck events, and shaped morphology/genetics/medical markers.

Are these traits genetic, epigenetic or cultural? It may be one, or a mix. Polar studies show selective pressures, but w/o future gene studies, we don't know. This paper can guide the difficult search for polygenic traits. East Asian parenting is known to transmit and enforce these traits

It already has successful predictions-

In Singapore, ethnic Chinese have only 1/6th the rate of claustrophobia vs Malays & Indians, despite all w same national upbringing/rice farm ancestry. 🌾

EA polar expeditioners have higher endurance, motivation, psych stability than N.American ones ⛷️

Novel testable predictions- EAs will tolerate close quarters group confinement (igloos/tents) better & have more Arcticist traits vs other ancestry ppl, controlled for pastoralism: Mongols vs Cossacks, Berbers, Somalis- & rice farming: South🇨🇳/🇯🇵/🇰🇷 vs Indians, Malays, N.Italians.

Rice farming in Northern Italy film

Confucianism revived preexisting Zhou dynasty values, can't act as sudden cause of EA personality. 🍚Rice farming induces collectivism but can't extend to North China, Mongolia, Tibet, Manchuria, Inuit

Indian/N.Italian/Iranian/Malay rice farmers general psych differs from EA

Thus Arcticism is a parsimonious theory for paleo-origins of general EA psych, before adding on later Holocene individualism effects of pastoralism🦌 on Mongols/Tibetans, & collectivism effects of agriculture🌾 on Han Chinese, Japanese, Koreans- leading to further local variation

Polar psychologists found the same traits to be adaptive & linked to success, & opposite traits to failure. The results are so consistent they've been refined into polar personnel selection criteria used in 🇺🇸🇨🇦🇳🇿🇩🇰🇳🇴 polar programs- mirroring ancient natural selection for traits

EAs & Inuit share traits of notably high emotional suppression, ingroup harmony & unassertiveness, indirectness, introversion, perseverance, self-consciousness, social sensitivity, risk aversion, visuospatial IQ, & worldviews. But does the Arctic cause this in polar workers? ❄️

Armed w Sci-Hub, I sifted 100s of obscure papers on Inuit (who share Siberian ancestry w EA) & polar workers🥶. I found despite EA psych/personality being on an extreme end of global spectrum, Inuit & successful polar staff have the same psych profile, personality, & worldviews

EAs mainly descend from Ancient Northern East Asians around the Ice Age, w cold adapted bio/genes: high epicanthic eyefolds, PAC glaucoma, long torso/short lower limbs🏋🏻‍♂️, lighter skin, EDAR V370A, LEPR, TRIB2, ABCC11, CGC-type, FADS, ADAM17 etc. But how about psych adaptations🤔?

Out of Africa human migrations are used in bio/genetics (but not psych) to model adaptation to ancient environments, like lactose tolerance🥛, metabolism. My method reviews studies of local workers & indigenous ppl to see if local ecology induces/selects for specific psych traits

Peruvian Quechua family

On a hike in the Peruvian Andes, I met a Native American (NA) lady who had identical looks, gait, & vibes as my East Asian (EA) mom. Why? I later learned EAs & NAs share Siberian ancestry & had an epiphany. A hypothesis was born.

What if EA psychology was also shaped by Siberia?

Korean, Greenlandic Inuit, Alaskan Inuit, Siberian Yakut

My first scientific paper went viral on X w 1m+ views, follows from top scholars, founders, but also gulag threats.

My new peer-reviewed APA paper shows general East Asian personality may be shaped by selective pressures of Ice Age Siberia ~20000 yrs ago❄️

📖 doi.org/10.1037/ebs0000373

How so?🧵👇