Why Finland may not be able to reverse the negative trend: The case for illusion of information adequacy and tribalism

On December 10, I was invited to partake in a conference. According to the invited speaker's own testimony, he was almost on a government level. The message: it's not going so well for Finland. A current study tested willingness to admit being wrong, as a function of one-sided versus a disjunctive outlook (The whole picture). Finland has issues because of tribalism, which likely started to emerge during Russia's occupation (1809 – 1917), and is manifested by one-sided viewpoints and the unwillingness to admit being wrong, which probably explains the high prevalence of Alzheimer's, Finnish women's relational aggressiveness, and the lack of entrepreneurial thinking and innovation. 6 pages.

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On December 10, I was invited to partake in a conference. According to the invited speaker's own testimony, he was almost on a government level. The message: it's not going so well for Finland, financially. He also claimed that Finland lacked innovations. He compared Finland to Sweden, which seems to be doing better, and asked the question: why?

The day after, state owned media Yle, the Swedish-speaking version, published an article with a similar message (Schauman, 2024).

The backstory is that I was invited to Finland because of my expertise in entrepreneurial thinking and creativity – a prerequisite for innovation.

Entrepreneurial thinking are the “knowledge structures” that people use to make judgments and decisions that involve the evaluation, creation and growth of opportunities (Cacciolatti och Lee, 2015; Mitchell et al. 2002; Österberg, 2012).

Creativity is a process where non-related mental objects, or fragments thereof, are melded together to form new cognitive structures (Österberg, 2012; Österberg and Köping Olsson, 2021; Wynn, Coolidge and Bright, 2009).

Entrepreneurial thinking and creativity are dependent on heterodoxy, learning from others, the willingness to learn from mistakes, and are part of something called the executive functions – a set of mental functions that support goal-directed behavior, and creativity, by regulating thoughts and actions through cognitive control, selecting and successfully monitoring actions that facilitate the attainment of chosen objectives (Ardila, 2008, Ardila et al. 2018; Adornetti, 2016; Barkley, 2001; Diamond and Lee, 2011; Pribram, 1973).

Executive functions unpack and have major developments during early age (Baker et al. 2020; Barkley, 2001; Baumrind, 1966; Farran och Formby, 2011; Gopnik, 2016; Hart och Risley, 1995; LaFlamme et al. 2012; Olsson, 2022). There's a father effect; kids who grow up with both parents or the father have better executive functioning compared to kids who grow up with a single-mother (Rolle et al. 2019; Sethna, 2017; Vieno et al. 2009, 2014; Österberg, 2004 b).

Tribalism, on the other hand, is marked by dogma, one-sided outlooks, moral shaming, and unwillingness to admit being wrong.

The latter is of course devastating, especially if your decision-making will have implications on other peoples life, e.g. a family life or in an organization of people.

Facit, KODAK, and Nokia, are three famous examples where the executive management's:

• goal-directed behavior failed.
  
  
• ability to admit being wrong also failed.

A current study tested willingness to admit being wrong, as a function of one-sided versus a disjunctive outlook (The whole picture) and overconfidence.

Link to source. Here's a link to the popular version.

The study's design included three groups: A, B, and C, and two one-sided arguments – 1 and 2. Group A received information about alternative 1, group B received information about alternative 2, and group C received information about both 1 and 2.

The result of the study revealed that those who were handed one-sided information (group A and B) were more confident in their decision and more reluctant to admit they were wrong compared to those who received all information (C) – had a disjunctive outlook.

The result can be applied to a variety of situations, and consistent with my research (Österberg, 2012).

Why is Swedish doing so much better than Finland?

4500 years before the present, migrating Yamnaya's from lower Volga arrived in northern Europe. They brought carts pulled by oxen, horses to ride, light skin and hair, blue eyes, and language. 1000 years later, uralic nomads from eastern Siberia arrived to the northern part of Fennoscandia (Anthony, 2007; Eiberg et al. 2008; Haak et al. 2015; Hanel and Carlberg, 2020; Lamnidis et al. 2018; Lazaridis et al. 2014).

Some of the Yamnaya stayed in Fennoscandia and eventually started to trade amber. They traveled as far as Mycenae in Greece (~1700 – ~1050 BC), and later the Etruscans (900 – 27 BC), in current Day Toscana, Italy.

~200 AD Sveons traded skins with the Romans and receive, among other things, salt in payment (Tacitus, 98 AD).

A sea kingdom – Roden – emerged on the east coast of what is the current Swedish kingdom, stretching from Hamrångefjärden i Gästrikland, to Öland. Its administrative arm was in Tiundaland.

“Tiundaland is a historic region, Folkland, and since 1296 part of the modern province of Uppland. It originally meant the land of the ten hundreds and referred to its duty of providing 1000 men and 40 ships for the Swedish king's leidang” (Wikipedia).

Together with Attundaland and Fjädrundaland (later Fjärdhundraland) they formed Svitjod – a trading hub between Serkland and Garðaríki, and the Frankish kingdom (481 – 843 AD).

Probably sometime during the Vendel period (540 - 750 AD), Satakunda (Finlandia Septentrionalis~germanic North), which today is divided into Satakunta and Birkaland on the eastern side of the Gulf of Bothnia, applied to become part of the sea Kingdom Svitjod (Klinge, 1985).

“The connotation of Satakunda in similar to Tiundaland” (Recent testimony from a Finnish historian)

Svithjod stretched all the way to Holmgård (also Novogorod).

in 1240, Holmgård (Novgorod) decided to become independent from Svitjod due to religious differences.

Northern Europe's largest cathedral was constructed and erected in Östra Aros/Uppsala (ca 1270 –), which also saw the founding of Uppsala University (1477).

In 1550, Helsingfors was founded by Sweden's king Gustav Vasa (1496 – 1560).

1581, the eastern part of the Swedish kingdom was crowned a Grand duchy.

In 1640, The Royal Academy of Åbo was founded, and Helsingfors was moved to Kronohagen.

During the 1600th, the Swedish kingdom had become really powerful.

The Kingdom of Sweden, 1658.

In 1748, Sweden started to build the naval fortress Sveaborg, situated just outside of Helsingfors.

In 1808, Russia's Alexander I decided to invade the eastern part of the Swedish kingdom. Vice Admiral Cronstedt chose to surrender and thus probably saved the lives of more than 5,000 people who lived on the islands of Sveaborg.

Starting 1809, Russia occupied Finland for 108 years until 1917. During the occupation, in 1863, Alexander II imposed a new language to stop the people in the eastern part from speaking the trade language around the Baltic sea and the Gulf of Bothnia. But he didn't choose Russian, but one of the Uralic-languages which was spoken in different forms by tribes in the inland.

That was probably the starting point for Finnish tribalism (Pagel, 2019).

Finland remained mainly Swedish-speaking until 1910 – 1940, a time-span which coincided with the country's language strife. After that, stagnation began ...

Now, the following are issues in Finland:

• Finnish culture to a great extent is marked by tribalism (Pagel, 2019).
  
  
• Childhood obesity is widespread (Eva Roos, Folkhälsan, autumn 2020).
  
  
• Finnish women's relational aggressiveness (psychological violence; Crick and Grotpeter, 1995; Hyde, 2005) is the biggest challenge (Helsingfors Police department, 2022).
  
  
• Too many Finnish children are unable to cope with reading comprehension and numeracy. The latter is the basis for instrumental and epistemic thinking (Ministry of Education and Culture, May 14, 2022).
  
  
• Too many Finns cannot work (KelaFpa/THL, 2023).
  
  
• Finland has the highest incidence of Alzheimer's/dementia in the world – twice as high as in neighboring Sweden (EU/OECD, 2023). The marker for Alzheimer's/dementia: aggression.🤔
  
  
• Research at the university of Helsingfors has collapsed (see dark blue line in attachment) (Bäckgren, HS, 2023).
  
  
• Child poverty is significant (n>130,000; Swedish-Finnish days for children's rights, November, 2023).
  
  
• Finland has the highest rate of depression within the EU (Estlander, Bensow, Swedish-Finnish days for children's rights, November, 2023).
  
  
• 40% of Finnish school kids are victims of psychological domestic violence (Estlander, Bensow, Swedish-Finnish days for children's rights, November, 2023).
  
  
• Entrepreneurship and innovative thinking are at rock bottom - why is Sweden doing so much better? (Jääskeläinen, Sitra Fund, December 10, 2024).

Conclusion. Finland has issues because of tribalism, which likely started to emerge during Russia's occupation (1809 – 1917), and is manifested by one-sided viewpoints and the unwillingness to admit being wrong, which probably explains women's relational aggressiveness, Alzheimers, at lack of entrepreneurial thinking and innovation.

Also read: Why does Sweden do better economically than Finland? (Yle) The answer may partly be blowing in the wind

Startup companies criticize the government's intentions to kick experts out of Finland more easily: "They are not interested in social security" Solution? Re-ignite the enlightenment movement

Björn Wahlroos i Stockholm: “Finland är konkursfärdigt”. Min kommentar: Finland behöver återgå till upplysnings/entreprenöriellt tänkande (Swedish, use translate).

See my comment on TikTok or YouTube.

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