A guest post at N3 discusses how much of our belief system is installed at least in broad outline by circumstances and genetics. I have my suspicions.
Wherever the climate is hot and humid - from Singapore to the DRC - people tend to be both more xenophobic and more conformist than the global average. Why? Because hot and humid climates are rich in pathogens like bacteria, fungi and parasites. The locals’ wariness of strangers comes from a heightened fear they might bring infection. And their learned conformity is a form of behavioural immunity to ensure nobody deviates from the practices they know will keep them safe from contagion.
I'll bet there is something to it, but my reflexive association with conformist is Swedish. People from Appalachia are traditional, but are they conformist? And they are in a different contagion environment than humid port cities of the South anyway. Is there anything we can legitimatelyn measure, here? I kept thinking of exceptions, and lack of clarity about definitions of things like conservative or religious. So I am bringing it up here as a thought exercise. What language we learn as a child is entirely circumstance. But what things are fully under our control, or even partly? We think of ourselves as free agents, and dislike ceding any territory to those who would point to aspects of ourselves we seem to have absorbed without due reflection.
Fifteen years ago I did an extended, nay overextended series May We Believe Our Thoughts? (MWBOT) There are links to research and essays on the topic by people smarter than me if you want a deep dive here.
This seems like the sort of topic where even if you are self-deluded your personal anecdotes are likely to be mines of information for the rest of us.
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