Causally opaque taboos about fish reduce poisoning during pregnancy

Evidence

Finally, our evidence from Yasawa suggests that these taboos, while causally opaque, do actually work. We compared women’s chances of getting fish poisoning during pregnancy and breast-feeding with the rest of their adult lives. Our analyses show that rates of fish poisoning are cut by a third during pregnancy and breast-feeding. Thus, the taboos are cultural prescriptions that reduce fish poisoning. — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 334

Categorization

• QUESTION: What mechanism transmits these taboos, and does conformity-biased copying explain their persistence without any causal folk understanding?
• XREF: connects to: Breast milk PCB levels ran 200 percent higher in fish-eating Mohawk mothers — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations: Native Struggles for…, 124

Broader Connections

• Breast milk PCB levels ran 200 percent higher in fish-eating Mohawk mothers #expands (0.82) — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations, 124