Are WEIRD people losing their steam?

Joel Mokyr argues that culture played a fundamental role to laid the groundwork for the industrial revolution, and will continue to do so in the future of technology. A paper published last month tests his ideas using textual analysis¹:

Using textual analysis of 173,031 works printed in England between 1500 and 1900, we test whether British culture evolved to manifest a heightened belief in progress associated with science and industry. Our analysis yields three main findings. First, there was a separation in the language of science and religion beginning in the 17th century. Second, scientific volumes became more progress-oriented during the Enlightenment. Third, industrial works, especially those at the science-political economy nexus were more progress-oriented beginning in the 17th century. It was therefore the more pragmatic, industrial works which reflected the cultural values cited as important for Britain’s takeoff.

The authors argue that textual analyses and the dataset they have constructed can be further utilized to study and test other hypotheses regarding European economic, political, and cultural history.

Interestingly, John Burn-Murdoch have adapted and extended their analysis to include Spain, which was economically competitive with Britain well into the 17th century, but then fell behind. Why?

Using data from millions of books digitised as part of the Google Ngram project, I have found that the upsurge in discussions of progress in British books occurs about two centuries before the same uptick in Spain, mirroring trends in the countries’ economic development.