Van de Vliert proposed and tested the interaction between climate and economics in effecting population variations in freedom seeking. Although the theory has shown explanatory power based on several datasets, we believe it remains an intermediate but not ultimate explanation of culture and freedom. Within Van de Vliert's framework, we discuss three issues to provide an ultimate explanation of cultural adaptation.
First, an intermediate explanation derives from Van de Vliert's definition of climatic demand. Defining a temperate climate of 22°C as the least demanding on or most fitting to human existence and defining both cold and hot deviations from it as equally demanding reflect such contemporary human living conditions as clothing and walled shelters, which already are cultural adaptive outcomes. Climate as an ultimate cause of cultural adaptation ought to reflect ancestral living conditions in Africa without man-made cultural artifacts. The fact that humans originated from Africa suggests that the hotter and less variable African climate is less demanding on human existence than a temperate climate to which humans culturally adapted by wearing clothes and building thermally more insulated shelters after they migrated out of Africa. Because of the African origin, a colder climate should have been more, rather than equally, demanding on human beings than a hotter climate and should have exerted stronger pressure for cultural adaptation. Thus, Van de Vliert's bi-directional definition of climatic demand is inaccurate in a long evolutionary view on cultural adaptation. Separately, as a covariate of climate, the effect of pathogen on cultural adaptation also aligns with the one-direction but not bi-direction model of climate demandingness in that, for example, as climates change to be hotter but not colder or in both directions, familism and religiosity (Fincher & Thornhill Reference Fincher and Thornhill2012) and conformity and social learning increased (Chang et al. Reference Chang, Mak, Li, Wu, Lu and Chen2011; Wu & Chang Reference Wu and Chang2012).
Second, economic condition is another intermediate variable, but it is not an ultimate cause in an evolutionary explanation of culture and freedom. In fact, the man-made economic condition is itself a cultural adaptive outcome in response to climate. A more ultimate variable is natural resources represented by flora and fauna to sustain the food chains necessary for human existence. The abundance of these basic resources is linearly and positively correlated with climate, with hotter and less variable climates but not temperate climates of 22°C providing rich flora and fauna. Economics being a cultural adaptive outcome in response to climate, but not an ultimate cause of culture parallel to climate, is also shown by the wide observation that populations of colder and more variable climates with fewer natural food resources created more wealth than populations in hotter and less variable climates with more natural food resources (Masters & McMillan Reference Masters and McMillan2001; Nordhaus Reference Nordhaus2006; Strulik Reference Strulik2008). When treating man-made economic development as a cause, rather than an outcome, in analyzing cultural adaptive processes, the reported climato-economic interaction effect may be misleading. Climate may not have been moderated by economic development as Van de Vliert claims. Instead, real thermal temperature may be counted into the analysis only in poor regions of the world but not in rich regions where economic development represented by such climate neutralizers as air conditioning makes the demanding or variable thermal conditions into a constant. Combining such “man-made” with natural climate into the same analysis results in the putative climato-economic interaction whereby climate is thought to relate to freedom differently depending on economic development.
Third, a longer distal view suggests that climate change versus stability over time evoked cultural adaptation more than thermal temperature, whereas the present theory based on thermal levels but not climate variations limits an ultimate account of culture. Much evidence shows that climatic variations drive cultural adaptation (Mercuri et al. Reference Mercuri, Sadori and Ollero2011), as well as brain development among human beings (Ash & Gallup Reference Ash and Gallup2007; Potts Reference Potts1998) and other mammals (Jerison Reference Jerison1973). The fact that human cultural evolution started or accelerated (Klein Reference Klein2002) after but not before humans left Africa supports this argument because both seasonal climate variations such as variation in daytime length and solar radiation energy received within a year (Loutre et al. Reference Loutre, Paillard, Vimeux and Cortijo2004) and temporal climatic variations such as variations in rainfalls or drought and flood across centuries (Cashdan Reference Cashdan2001; Stevens Reference Stevens1989) increase as the distance away from the equator increases. Because climatic variation is linearly correlated with climatic temperature in that climate gets colder and more variable with increasing distance from the equator, the cross-cultural differences data reported either in the present study or in the literature may well have registered the effect from both climate variation and thermal temperature and from the former more than the latter.
We propose an environmental variability model by which cultures result from different extent of environmental variability over time, including climatic variability. Cultures including freedom from want and fear and freedom of expression and participation are defined as specific ways to adapt to the local environment consisting of survival difficulties and demands or challenges and opportunities, to use Van de Vliert's terminology. These cultural adaptive methods are mediated by social learning, or copying existing solutions, and individual learning, or innovating by trial and error (Boyd & Richerson Reference Boyd and Richerson2005), two fundamental problem-solving methods in response to environmental change versus stability (Chang et al. Reference Chang, Mak, Li, Wu, Lu and Chen2011). A relatively more changing environment, including variable climate, evokes cultural adaptive strategies that rely more on individual learning to solve new problems, whereas cultural adaptive strategies depend more on social learning in response to a relatively unchanging environment where existing solutions are adequate in solving old problems. Individual learning or solving new problems on one's own activates and, in turn, is facilitated by a set of values and beliefs known today as Western democracy and freedom. These include what Van de Vliert describes as individualism and self-actualization, independence and equality, and freedom of expression and participation, all of which are fundamentally related to individual learning or being able to work on one's own. By non-randomly copying successful solutions made by other conspecifics, social learning fundamentally concerns working with others and promotes collectivistic values based on social hierarchy and ingroup discrimination rather than equality. The overall lack of individualism and social equality, characteristic of low levels of freedom, facilitate copying selectively solutions of the majority or of the successful individuals characterizing social learning (Boyd & Richerson Reference Boyd and Richerson2005). Climate as an ultimate cause of culture contributes to environmental stability versus change that evokes reliance on social versus individual learning in adapting to the relatively unchanging versus changing environmental characteristics. Western democracy and freedom and other value systems have evolved resulting from and facilitating individual and social learning.
Van de Vliert proposed and tested the interaction between climate and economics in effecting population variations in freedom seeking. Although the theory has shown explanatory power based on several datasets, we believe it remains an intermediate but not ultimate explanation of culture and freedom. Within Van de Vliert's framework, we discuss three issues to provide an ultimate explanation of cultural adaptation.
First, an intermediate explanation derives from Van de Vliert's definition of climatic demand. Defining a temperate climate of 22°C as the least demanding on or most fitting to human existence and defining both cold and hot deviations from it as equally demanding reflect such contemporary human living conditions as clothing and walled shelters, which already are cultural adaptive outcomes. Climate as an ultimate cause of cultural adaptation ought to reflect ancestral living conditions in Africa without man-made cultural artifacts. The fact that humans originated from Africa suggests that the hotter and less variable African climate is less demanding on human existence than a temperate climate to which humans culturally adapted by wearing clothes and building thermally more insulated shelters after they migrated out of Africa. Because of the African origin, a colder climate should have been more, rather than equally, demanding on human beings than a hotter climate and should have exerted stronger pressure for cultural adaptation. Thus, Van de Vliert's bi-directional definition of climatic demand is inaccurate in a long evolutionary view on cultural adaptation. Separately, as a covariate of climate, the effect of pathogen on cultural adaptation also aligns with the one-direction but not bi-direction model of climate demandingness in that, for example, as climates change to be hotter but not colder or in both directions, familism and religiosity (Fincher & Thornhill Reference Fincher and Thornhill2012) and conformity and social learning increased (Chang et al. Reference Chang, Mak, Li, Wu, Lu and Chen2011; Wu & Chang Reference Wu and Chang2012).
Second, economic condition is another intermediate variable, but it is not an ultimate cause in an evolutionary explanation of culture and freedom. In fact, the man-made economic condition is itself a cultural adaptive outcome in response to climate. A more ultimate variable is natural resources represented by flora and fauna to sustain the food chains necessary for human existence. The abundance of these basic resources is linearly and positively correlated with climate, with hotter and less variable climates but not temperate climates of 22°C providing rich flora and fauna. Economics being a cultural adaptive outcome in response to climate, but not an ultimate cause of culture parallel to climate, is also shown by the wide observation that populations of colder and more variable climates with fewer natural food resources created more wealth than populations in hotter and less variable climates with more natural food resources (Masters & McMillan Reference Masters and McMillan2001; Nordhaus Reference Nordhaus2006; Strulik Reference Strulik2008). When treating man-made economic development as a cause, rather than an outcome, in analyzing cultural adaptive processes, the reported climato-economic interaction effect may be misleading. Climate may not have been moderated by economic development as Van de Vliert claims. Instead, real thermal temperature may be counted into the analysis only in poor regions of the world but not in rich regions where economic development represented by such climate neutralizers as air conditioning makes the demanding or variable thermal conditions into a constant. Combining such “man-made” with natural climate into the same analysis results in the putative climato-economic interaction whereby climate is thought to relate to freedom differently depending on economic development.
Third, a longer distal view suggests that climate change versus stability over time evoked cultural adaptation more than thermal temperature, whereas the present theory based on thermal levels but not climate variations limits an ultimate account of culture. Much evidence shows that climatic variations drive cultural adaptation (Mercuri et al. Reference Mercuri, Sadori and Ollero2011), as well as brain development among human beings (Ash & Gallup Reference Ash and Gallup2007; Potts Reference Potts1998) and other mammals (Jerison Reference Jerison1973). The fact that human cultural evolution started or accelerated (Klein Reference Klein2002) after but not before humans left Africa supports this argument because both seasonal climate variations such as variation in daytime length and solar radiation energy received within a year (Loutre et al. Reference Loutre, Paillard, Vimeux and Cortijo2004) and temporal climatic variations such as variations in rainfalls or drought and flood across centuries (Cashdan Reference Cashdan2001; Stevens Reference Stevens1989) increase as the distance away from the equator increases. Because climatic variation is linearly correlated with climatic temperature in that climate gets colder and more variable with increasing distance from the equator, the cross-cultural differences data reported either in the present study or in the literature may well have registered the effect from both climate variation and thermal temperature and from the former more than the latter.
We propose an environmental variability model by which cultures result from different extent of environmental variability over time, including climatic variability. Cultures including freedom from want and fear and freedom of expression and participation are defined as specific ways to adapt to the local environment consisting of survival difficulties and demands or challenges and opportunities, to use Van de Vliert's terminology. These cultural adaptive methods are mediated by social learning, or copying existing solutions, and individual learning, or innovating by trial and error (Boyd & Richerson Reference Boyd and Richerson2005), two fundamental problem-solving methods in response to environmental change versus stability (Chang et al. Reference Chang, Mak, Li, Wu, Lu and Chen2011). A relatively more changing environment, including variable climate, evokes cultural adaptive strategies that rely more on individual learning to solve new problems, whereas cultural adaptive strategies depend more on social learning in response to a relatively unchanging environment where existing solutions are adequate in solving old problems. Individual learning or solving new problems on one's own activates and, in turn, is facilitated by a set of values and beliefs known today as Western democracy and freedom. These include what Van de Vliert describes as individualism and self-actualization, independence and equality, and freedom of expression and participation, all of which are fundamentally related to individual learning or being able to work on one's own. By non-randomly copying successful solutions made by other conspecifics, social learning fundamentally concerns working with others and promotes collectivistic values based on social hierarchy and ingroup discrimination rather than equality. The overall lack of individualism and social equality, characteristic of low levels of freedom, facilitate copying selectively solutions of the majority or of the successful individuals characterizing social learning (Boyd & Richerson Reference Boyd and Richerson2005). Climate as an ultimate cause of culture contributes to environmental stability versus change that evokes reliance on social versus individual learning in adapting to the relatively unchanging versus changing environmental characteristics. Western democracy and freedom and other value systems have evolved resulting from and facilitating individual and social learning.