Agner Fog, Ph.D.
Publications on
Regality theory and cultural selection theory
These topics are discussed on the Regality forum.
You can follow my publications on ResearchGate.
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Warlike and peaceful societies: the interaction of genes and culture. Book. Regality theory is a theory saying that people show a preference for strong leadership in times of war or collective danger, but a preference for an egalitarian political system in times of peace and safety. These psychological preferences in individuals are reflected in the political structure and culture of the society. A society in danger will develop in the direction called regal, which includes strong nationalism, discipline, strict religiosity, patriarchy, strict sexual morals, and perfectionist art. A society in peace will develop in the opposite direction called kungic, which includes egalitarianism and tolerance. This book is both theoretical and experimental. The theoretical explanation of the regal-versus-kungic dimension is based on evolutionary psychology and human ecology. Contributions from the social sciences and the humanities are added to further analyze historical examples of regal and kungic developments. The theory is tested on data from both contemporary and ancient societies. These tests confirm the predictions of the theory. Warlike and peaceful societies, pdf manuscript. The theory is explained in this interview.
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Cultural Selection. This book explores the cultural selection of both qualitative and quantitative traits. Dordrecht: Kluwer 1999.
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Psychological and cultural effects of different kinds of danger. An exploration based on survey data from 79 countries. Culture and Evolution, 2023. Several theories in both social psychology and cultural anthropology suggest that threat and danger can lead to authoritarianism, intolerance, xenophobia, strict morals, strict religiosity, etc. These theories are not very specific about what kinds of dangers have the supposed effects. This article presents a large statistical study finding that only collective dangers have these effects, while individual dangers may have the opposite effects. This result confirms the predictions of regality theory. Humans respond to war and other collective dangers by supporting a strong leader and strict discipline. This response pattern has evolved because it helps promote collective action and suppress free riding when a social group is threatened. This finding improves the theoretical understanding of some common psychological and cultural phenomena.
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A Test of the Reproducibility of the Clustering of Cultural Variables. Cross-Cultural Research 55, September 2020. This is a meta-study of 31 published studies of cultural differences. It shows a common super-factor reflecting the combined effects of economic, technological, institutional, social, cultural, and psychological effects that are strongly correlated with each other, as predicted by regality theory. The similarity between different studies has hitherto been obscured by the common practice of factor rotation.
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Two-Dimensional Models of Cultural Differences: Statistical and Theoretical Analysis. Cross-Cultural Research, 2022. This is an extension of the above article including more statistics and more elaboration on the theoretical explanation of two dominating factors in studies of cultural differences. The first factor, accounting for 34% of the total variance in cultural variables, reflects general effects of development and welfare. This factor is explained by theories of development, modernization, emancipation, and secularization. This includes psychological effects of collective security that are explained by regality theory. The dimension formed by the first factor has one end in poor and war-torn countries, and the opposite end in North European welfare states. The second factor, accounting for 15% of the total variance, reflects relational mobility, long-term versus short-term orientation, differences in self-construal, and various other effects. Theoretical explanations of these effects are based on differences in subsistence economy, colonial history, ethnic diversity, and religion. The second factor has one end in East Asian countries, and the opposite end in Latin American countries. Analysis of business culture reveals the same two-factor pattern as national culture.
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Can a collapse of current economic empires be predicted?. A look into the future, and a test of the predictive powers of various economic, cultural, historic, social, psychological and evolutionary theories. Manuscript, June 2014.
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Towards a universal theory of competition and selection. A unified theory for understanding the possible consequences of competition in many different fields, including evolution, economics, democratic elections, attention catching, social prestige, sports, war, game theory, etc. Working paper, 2013.
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The gap between cultural selection theory and sociology. Paper presented at the 2003 meeting of the International Society for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology.
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An Evolutionary Theory of Cultural Differentiation. Proceedings of the XV world congress of the International Union for Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences Lisbon 2006. Publishers of British Archaeological Reports, Oxford 2009.
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The supposed and the real role of mass media in modern democracy. Working paper, 2013.
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Explaining unintended developments with cultural selection theory. Paper 2023.
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Whatever happened to memetics?. Commentary 2023.
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Why terrorism doesn't work. Draft article 2002.
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Cultural r/k selection in Journal of Memetics 1997.
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A talk about warlike and peaceful societies and regality theory. Interview by Ricardo Lopez. Transcript.
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A talk about cultural evolution with a particular focus on explaining unintended and unplanned developments. Interview by Ricardo Lopez. Transcript.
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