The Economics of Cultural Transmission and Socialization

Bisin, Alberto; Verdier, Thierry

doi:10.1016/b978-0-444-53187-2.00009-7

Cited by 302 publications

(198 citation statements)

References 144 publications

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“…Open accusations of witchcraft often lead to conflict entailing severe sanctions and eroding social capital (Gershman, 2014b). 17 For excellent literature reviews on cultural persistence see Bisin and Verdier (2011) and Nunn (2012). For an anthropologist's perspective see Chibnik (1981).…”

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

The economic origins of the evil eye belief

Gershman¹

2015

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization

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JEL classification: D31 D74 N30 O10 Z10 Z13 Keywords: Culture Envy Evil eye belief Inequality Institutions Superstition a b s t r a c tThe evil eye belief is a widespread superstition according to which people can cause harm by a mere envious glance at coveted objects or their owners. This paper argues that such belief originated and persisted as a useful heuristic under conditions in which envy was likely to trigger destructive behavior and the avoidance of other people's envy, effectively prescribed by the evil eye belief, was a proper response to that threat. We hypothesize that in weakly institutionalized societies wealth differentiation and vulnerability of productive assets were the key factors enabling envy-induced destructive behavior and contributing to the emergence and spread of the evil eye belief as a cultural defense mechanism. Evidence from small-scale preindustrial societies shows that there is indeed a robust positive association between the incidence of the belief and measures of wealth inequality, controlling for potential confounding factors such as patterns of spatial and cross-cultural diffusion and various dimensions of early economic development. Furthermore, the evil eye belief is more prevalent in agro-pastoral societies that tend to sustain higher levels of inequality and where vulnerable material wealth plays a dominant role in the subsistence economy.

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Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

The economic origins of the evil eye belief

Gershman¹

2015

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization

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“…Furthermore, the channel of transmission is important in explaining which cultural characteristics are more likely to persist. Bisin et al (2004) and Bisin and Verdier (2011) suggest that even though theoretically both parent-to-child vertical transmission and horizontal social transmission (e.g., through peers or role models) are possible, empirically, vertical transmission is much more pronounced in the case of religiosity and abstract ideals and values, because parents are ready to take costly actions to influence their child's beliefs. Thus, it is likely that higher religiosity in the Austrian and Prussian partitions and higher democratic capital in the Austrian partition have persisted because they are transmitted vertically, through family upbringing, rather than through horizontal socialization.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Cultural vs. economic legacies of empires: Evidence from the partition of Poland

Grosfeld

Zhuravskaya

2015

Journal of Comparative Economics

109

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“…6 Preferences are shaped by both horizontal and vertical socialisation (Bisin and Verdier, 2010). Cipriani et al (2007) and Dohmen et al (2012) investigate vertical socialisation by studying the role parents play in shaping the pro-social and risk attitudes of their children.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%