What Doesn’t Kill Us May Really Make Us Stronger, Since Ancient Human Civilizations That Faced More Setbacks Were Quicker To Recover From Hardship

“The winners [after a disturbance], either they’re just lucky, or they have some sort of technology or practice or behavior or social institution that means that they did better during the crisis,” said Riris. “As a result, they’re more likely to pass down that learning, that aspect of culture that will enable their descendants to do better down the line.”

The findings of the study align with the research that has been done in other specific historical cases. For instance, an associate professor at Georgetown University named Dagomar Degroot researched resilience in the Dutch Republic while they were undergoing the Little Ice Age in the 17th century.

Currently, it is unclear whether the findings can be applied to modern humans since all the societies in the study were from the preindustrial era and don’t really correspond with the way the world works today.

Still, it’s important to be able to look for patterns in societies that may help us learn about or even improve our own.

The study was published in the journal Nature.