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Move UP: Why Some Cultures Advance While Others Don't
An irreverent and controversial examination of why some nations succeed that will overturn all received wisdom
With an abundance of data and evidence, Move UP explores the societal and biological factors that determine whether cultures are able to ascend socially, economically, and intellectually. This provocative, ambitious, and entertaining book devises a formula that will allow countries and individuals to assess their own potential for upward mobility. Drawing on science and statistics as much as on human instinct and emotion, Move UP reconsiders the modern world with a motion to improving it.
With an abundance of data and evidence, Move UP explores the societal and biological factors that determine whether cultures are able to ascend socially, economically, and intellectually. This provocative, ambitious, and entertaining book devises a formula that will allow countries and individuals to assess their own potential for upward mobility. Drawing on science and statistics as much as on human instinct and emotion, Move UP reconsiders the modern world with a motion to improving it.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2015
1 person is currently reading
19 people want to read
About the author
Clotaire Rapaille
16 books84 followersDr. Clotaire Rapaille began his career as an academic, studying political and social sciences at The Paris Institute of Political Sciences and social psychology at Paris-Sorbonne University.
One of Dr. Rapaille's students urged his father, a Nestlé employee to attend one of Dr. Rapaille's lectures. In his lecture, Dr. Rapaille covered Paul D. MacLean's theory of the reptilian brain and Konrad Lorenz's theory of psychological imprints. After Dr. Rapaille's lecture, the student's father convinced Rapaille that his psychological approach could help Nestlé sell instant coffee in Japan.
Skeptical, Dr. Rapaille took the challenge. Soon, he saw how Nestlé's approach had ignored imprints (the process by which people establish strong emotional connections at an early age, which affect the psyche and influence decision making into adulthood). Without any early association with coffee, the tea-drinking Japanese consumers were unlikely to buy Nestlé's instant coffee.
Dr. Rapaille's work has since revolved around the way psychological imprints and the reptilian brain inform consumer decisions as people develop these associations on a cultural scale. Rapaille refers to the basic metaphors consumers unconsciously adopt to see products and the world as "culture codes."
Rapaille has advised American presidential candidates and corporations worldwide, touting huge successes that improved the fates of Fortune 500 Companies and more.
One of Dr. Rapaille's students urged his father, a Nestlé employee to attend one of Dr. Rapaille's lectures. In his lecture, Dr. Rapaille covered Paul D. MacLean's theory of the reptilian brain and Konrad Lorenz's theory of psychological imprints. After Dr. Rapaille's lecture, the student's father convinced Rapaille that his psychological approach could help Nestlé sell instant coffee in Japan.
Skeptical, Dr. Rapaille took the challenge. Soon, he saw how Nestlé's approach had ignored imprints (the process by which people establish strong emotional connections at an early age, which affect the psyche and influence decision making into adulthood). Without any early association with coffee, the tea-drinking Japanese consumers were unlikely to buy Nestlé's instant coffee.
Dr. Rapaille's work has since revolved around the way psychological imprints and the reptilian brain inform consumer decisions as people develop these associations on a cultural scale. Rapaille refers to the basic metaphors consumers unconsciously adopt to see products and the world as "culture codes."
Rapaille has advised American presidential candidates and corporations worldwide, touting huge successes that improved the fates of Fortune 500 Companies and more.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 10, 2025
In essence, the author argues that certain elements of a culture burdens (the author used the word “gravity”) individuals to move up. Couple examples:
The French believe nothing could be changed unless a whole system is changed. Thus absent frequent systematic changes, nothing gets improved.
The Indian’s caste system hinders individual’s ability to move up regardless of their innate abilities.
The Russian’s innate believe in the destiny of suffering, that in life suffering is expected.
The author advocate on an individual level to understand those innate cultural hindrances (perhaps by moving around, by learning more about other cultures etc) and find ways to break away from them - to “move up”.
The French believe nothing could be changed unless a whole system is changed. Thus absent frequent systematic changes, nothing gets improved.
The Indian’s caste system hinders individual’s ability to move up regardless of their innate abilities.
The Russian’s innate believe in the destiny of suffering, that in life suffering is expected.
The author advocate on an individual level to understand those innate cultural hindrances (perhaps by moving around, by learning more about other cultures etc) and find ways to break away from them - to “move up”.
Displaying 1 of 1 review