Human success stems from culture, not individual intelligence.

Evidence

The secret of our species’ success lies not in our raw, innate, intelligence or in any specialized mental abilities that fire up when we encounter the typical problems that repeatedly challenged our hunter-gatherer ancestors in the Pleistocene. Our ability to survive and thrive as hunter-gatherers, or anything else, across an immense range of global environments is not due to our individual brainpower applied to solving complex problems. As you will see in chapter 2 , stripped of our culturally acquired mental skills and know-how, we are not so impressive when we go head-to-head in problem-solving tests against other apes, and we certainly are not impressive enough to account for the vast success of our species or for our much larger brains. — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 42

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Human intelligence largely derives from culturally inherited tools rather than individual brainpower. — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 75; Individual intelligence results from culturally accumulated tools rather than raw brainpower — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 53; Once cultural knowledge accumulates, individuals cannot invent better traits than they can copy — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 205 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Human intelligence largely derives from culturally inherited tools rather than individual brainpower. #expands (0.95) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 75
• Individual intelligence results from culturally accumulated tools rather than raw brainpower #expands (0.92) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 53
• Individual intelligence alone cannot sustain human survival without cumulative cultural knowledge #corroborates (0.90) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 135
• Cultural accumulation made individual ingenuity insufficient for survival. #corroborates (0.88)
• Once cultural knowledge accumulates, individuals cannot invent better traits than they can copy #corroborates (0.85) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 205
• Survival in extreme environments hinges on culturally accumulated knowledge, not individual capacity. #exemplifies (0.83) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 107
• Collective numbers, not individual genius, drive human intellect’s reach. #corroborates (0.82) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 1043
• Cultural upbringing shapes human nature far more than biology does. #qualifies (0.75) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 173
• Intelligence is malleable and shaped by environment, not fixed by heredity #corroborates (0.75) — Harriet A. Washington, A Terrible Thing to Waste, 54