I was rejected from woke PhD programs for my "un-PC" idea: ancient...

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I was rejected from woke PhD programs for my "un-PC" idea: ancient migrations can shape culture & psychology. So I proved it alone.

My new peer-reviewed @APA paper shows East Asian personality may stem from Ice Age Siberia ~20000 yrs ago❄️

📖doi.org/10.1037/ebs000…

How so?🧵👇

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On a hike in the Peruvian Andes, I met a Native American (NA) lady who had identical looks, gait, & vibes as my East Asian (EA) mom. Why? I later learned EAs & NAs share Siberian ancestry & had an epiphany. A hypothesis was born.

What if EA psychology was also shaped by Siberia?

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Out of Africa human migrations are used in bio/genetics (but not psych) to model adaptation to ancient environments, like lactose tolerance🥛, metabolism. My method reviews studies of local workers & indigenous ppl to see if local ecology induces/selects for specific psych traits

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EAs mainly descend from Ancient Northern East Asians around the Ice Age, w cold adapted bio/genes: high epicanthic eyefolds, PAC glaucoma, long torso/short lower limbs🏋🏻‍♂️, lighter skin, EDAR V370A, LEPR, TRIB2, ABCC11, CGC-type, FADS, ADAM17 etc. But how about psych adaptations🤔?

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Armed w @sci_hub_, I sifted 100s of obscure papers on Inuit (who share Siberian ancestry w EA) & polar workers🥶. I found despite EA psych/personality being on an extreme end of global spectrum, Inuit & successful polar staff have the same psych profile, personality, & worldviews

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EAs & Inuit share traits of notably high emotional suppression, ingroup harmony & unassertiveness, indirectness, introversion, perseverance, self-consciousness, social sensitivity, risk aversion, visuospatial IQ, & worldviews. But does the Arctic cause this in polar workers? ❄️

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Polar psychologists found the same traits to be adaptive & linked to success, & opposite traits to failure. The results are so consistent they've been refined into polar personnel selection criteria used in 🇺🇸🇨🇦🇳🇿🇩🇰🇳🇴 polar programs- mirroring ancient natural selection for traits

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Thus Arcticism is a parsimonious theory for paleo-origins of general EA psych, before adding on later Holocene individualism effects of pastoralism🦌 on Mongols/Tibetans, & collectivism effects of agriculture🌾 on Han Chinese, Japanese, Koreans- leading to further local variation

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Confucianism revived preexisting Zhou dynasty values, can't act as sudden cause of EA personality. 🍚Rice farming induces collectivism but can't extend to North China, Mongolia, Tibet, Manchuria, Inuit

Indian/N.Italian/Iranian/Malay rice farmers general psych differs from EA

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Novel testable predictions- EAs will tolerate close quarters group confinement (igloos/tents) better & have more Arcticist traits vs other ancestry ppl, controlled for pastoralism: Mongols vs Cossacks, Berbers, Somalis- & rice farming: South🇨🇳/🇯🇵/🇰🇷 vs Indians, Malays, N.Italians

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Are these traits genetic, epigenetic or cultural? It may a mix. Polar studies show selective pressures, but w/o future gene studies, we don't know. This paper can guide the difficult search for polygenic traits. East Asian parenting is known to transmit and enforce these traits

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The well known distinctly EA combo of sociocultural problems (excessive conformity, emotional repression, death by overwork, shyness, image obsession, introversion, risk aversion, social sensitivity etc) may be mainly remnants of ancient Arcticism, & not Confucianism/agriculture.

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Paper out soon on the effects of ancestral tropics and heat stress, and temperate habitats on other major ancestry folks

Perhaps humans do not perceive life & our modern world as it is, but rather as a cumulative reflection of all the diverse habitats our ancestors survived in.

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If you have thoughts on the paper, the journal is accepting academic-level commentaries w June 30 deadline, max 15 pg dbl space incl references. Feel free to invite other scholars to read & comment. If interested, DM me for editor's email. Thank you.

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I will be testing the foundations of other "unquestionable" ideologies & incumbent theories, and will release the earliest unpublished research, hypotheses, coauthor requests, and commentary on my new free substack davidsun.substack.com Subscribe for early access!

END 🧵

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Arcticism theory has resulted in successful novel predictions across other domains, compiled here #1:

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Arcticism theory has resulted in successful novel predictions across other domains #2:
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Arcticism theory has resulted in successful novel predictions across other domains #3

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Arcticism theory has resulted in successful novel predictions across other domains #4
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Arcticism theory has resulted in successful novel predictions across other domains #5
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Arcticism theory has resulted in successful novel predictions across other domains #6

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Arcticism theory’s successful novel predictions across other domains # 7
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Arcticism theory’s successful novel predictions across other domains # 8

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Arcticism theory’s successful novel predictions across other domains # 9

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Arcticism theory’s successful novel predictions across other domains # 10
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Arcticism theory’s successful novel predictions across other domains # 11
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Arcticism theory has resulted in a successful genomic confirmation of the core polygenic personality traits in East Asian related populations
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Arcticism theory paper has become the 6th most downloaded @APA journal paper of 2025

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@APA Arcticism has resulted in another successful prediction #12
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@APA Arcticism has resulted in another successful prediction #13
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I was rejected from woke PhD programs for my "un-PC" idea: ancient...

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