The Cultural Brain

Can culture change the basic anatomy of the brain?

When individualist and group-oriented societies across the globe are compared, it might be culture, not just genes, that drives evolutionary outcomes. Joan Chiao, assistant professor in Northwestern's Department of Psychology, has researched the evolution of humanity operating on at least two different levels of the brain. One is the well-understood biological level, but there is also a level where traits are selected for their particularly unique cultural success, which leads to the selection of different types of genes.

In other words, is culture doesn't just influence what we do on holidays. Instead, it actually has an affect on how we think and even how we perceive reality.

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