The Blank Slate

In this chapter, Pinker redefines our conception of culture from a kind of bizarre lottery in which each person receives a bizarre set of practices to a less random design that allows us to survive and perpetuate.

Pinker argues that culture is not separate from the mind because it develops from the neural circuitry that produces learning. Just as we learn languages from listening to our parents, we also have minds that enable us to learn culture by observing the people around us. To do so, people have to have what is called a “theory of mind”—they need to understand others’ motivations and feelings. This is what the chimpanzee known as “Nim” could not do when he copied a person washing dishes but washed ones that were already clean. The theory of mind can also explain why people with autism may have trouble understanding social behavior.

Social psychologists have documented two powerful reasons to imitate others. One is informational. Its purpose is to gain their knowledge and culture is in many ways just accumulated local knowledge. The second is normative. Its purpose is to follow others’ standards. Within groups, people treat social realities as universal, and this willingness to do so is inherent across societies.