Book #83: The Triple Package by Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld

I picked up this book because I'd read a summary of it somewhere and Mormons are one of the rising cultural groups that Chua and Rubenfeld describe in their analysis. Naturally, anything that says relatively positive things about Mormons (by a relatively well-known non-Mormon, especially) is interesting to me, so I requested it at the library. The goal of this book is to define what traits are common to groups who are currently experiencing above-average levels of success in America, to possibly explain why these groups are doing better than the rest of the country. Chua and Rubenfeld focus on some seven or eight groups, like Chinese Americans, Indian Americans, Jews, Iranian Americans, Mormons, and a couple of other ones I don't remember. And according to the authors' thesis, all of these groups have the "triple package" of these three traits of success:

-Superiority complex: Every group has a deep belief in its own exceptionality.
-Insecurity (or, as I think of it, inferiority complex): Each group has the need to prove itself and its place in America, due to fear or scorn or the need to live up to impossible expectations.
-Impulse Control: Every group has the ability to resist temptation and exercise self-discipline, which creates a strong work ethic and ability to move past failures.

Looking at the one group that I belong to, I thought that these three traits apply perfectly to Mormons. Superiority complex: We believe that we are the true church and children of God. Inferiority complex: We talk about the "extermination order" and the persecution against the Church, and want desperately to be accepted as "normal" members of society (in the world, not of the world?). Impulse control: Chua and Rubenfeld devote quite a lot of time talking about LDS missions and the Word of Wisdom--we are probably the group that best exemplifies the impulse control idea. And according to the authors, these three traits are the reason behind the recent spate of Mormon successes in the business world (how many super-rich CEOs and business leaders are LDS out there?). Most of their discussion about Mormons seemed positive, although they of course took a few pages to describe how women in the Church are not at an equal level to men, providing men in the Church with an extra superiority complex.

Although the whole idea behind this book seems a little problematic (looking at entire racial and religious groups, which seems like it could rely heavily on stereotypes), Chua and Rubenfeld do give a disclaimer for what they're trying to do at the beginning, explaining that there truly ARE differences between how groups are succeeding and how they behave, even though we don't like to acknowledge them and even though these generalizations don't apply to everyone within the group. They rely heavily on social scientific research and studies, and provide a lot of evidence to back up their claims about any sort of group that they make (except Mormons, interestingly, which seem to rely a lot on memoir-type accounts written by LDS members, including Joanna Brooks' book). I thought that their whole thesis is interesting and definitely makes a lot of sense, and as a whole, I enjoyed reading their book.