WEIRD

What Does WEIRD Mean in a Text?

The Quick Answer

WEIRD means "Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic."

More Observations...

WEIRD is an acronym often used in psychology and the social sciences, referring to a subset of the population that is "Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic." It was coined by researchers Joseph Henrich, Steven J. Heine, and Ara Norenzayan in their influential paper titled "The Weirdest People in the World?" which was published in 2010. WEIRD highlights the fact that a significant portion of behavioral science research is conducted on a relatively narrow demographic (often undergraduate students from Western universities) that doesn't necessarily represent global human behavior. Researchers using the WEIRD acronym emphasize the need for psychological and social research to incorporate a broader and more diverse range of cultures and societies to avoid bias and to have more accurate and comprehensive scientific findings.

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When I write WEIRD, I mean this:

WEIRD is an acronym used in psychology and the social sciences.

Summary of Key Points

We have summarized the key points in the table below:

WEIRD
Definition:	Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic
Type:	Acronym
Guessability:	4: Difficult to guess
Typical Users:	Specialists

An Academic Look at WEIRD

WEIRD can be considered an acronym, because it is formed by taking the initial letters of the words "Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic" and pronouncing them together as a single word, "weird." Other examples of acronyms are:

NASA - "National Aeronautics and Space Administration."
UNICEF - "United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund."

Acronyms are often used as shorthand in many professional fields, such as technology, business, medicine, and government, as well as in general chat. They can help save time and space when communicating, especially when talking about complex or technical information. Acronyms differ from initialism abbreviations, which are pronounced using their individual letters. For example: