Inna Vorobei
vorobei-inna.bsky.social
Inna Vorobei
@vorobei-inna.bsky.social
PhD linguist turned science journalist. Sharing the wonder of science & the mystery of languages.
7️⃣
Conclusion:

Fairy tales don’t make countries rich directly.

But the stories societies tell about fairness, effort, and trust can shape economic outcomes for centuries.
Once upon a time — and that matters.
January 2, 2026 at 3:32 PM
6️⃣
The effect is especially strong in poorer countries.
Where institutions are weak, culture becomes invisible economic infrastructure.
January 2, 2026 at 3:32 PM
5️⃣
The result surprised even the authors:
countries whose folklore more strongly promotes these values tend to grow faster economically.
January 2, 2026 at 3:32 PM
4️⃣
Using AI, researchers extracted cultural norms from these stories:
cooperation, altruism, work ethic, tolerance, attitudes toward authority and discrimination.
January 2, 2026 at 3:32 PM
3️⃣
Fairy tales are not just stories.
They are instructions:
– Is cooperation rewarded?
– Is cheating punished?
– Is hard work valued?
– Can unjust authority be challenged?
January 2, 2026 at 3:32 PM
2️⃣
Economists analyzed 27,000 folk tales from 172 countries.
Not for literary curiosity — but to understand which values societies transmit across generations.
January 2, 2026 at 3:32 PM
7️⃣
Вывод:
сказки не делают страны богатыми напрямую.
Но истории, которые общество рассказывает себе о справедливости, труде и доверии, могут влиять на экономику столетиями.
January 2, 2026 at 3:16 PM
6️⃣
Причём эффект особенно сильный в бедных странах.
Там, где институты слабы, культура становится невидимой инфраструктурой экономики.
January 2, 2026 at 3:16 PM
4️⃣
С помощью ИИ из сказок извлекли культурные нормы:
сотрудничество, альтруизм, трудовую этику, толерантность, отношение к власти и дискриминации.
Результат удивил даже авторов:
страны, где в фольклоре сильнее поощряются эти ценности, в среднем росли экономически быстрее.
January 2, 2026 at 3:16 PM
3️⃣Сказки — это не просто истории.
Это инструкции:
– поощряется ли сотрудничество?
– наказывается ли обман?
– ценится ли труд?
– можно ли бросать вызов власти?
January 2, 2026 at 3:16 PM
2️⃣
Исследователи проанализировали 27 000 народных сказок из 172 стран.
Не ради литературы — а чтобы понять, какие ценности общества передают из поколения в поколение.
January 2, 2026 at 3:16 PM
3/
But here’s the paradox:
during COVID, hit songs became less stressful and more positive.
In extreme crises, music isn’t a mirror —
it becomes a collective emotion-regulation tool 🧠🎧

We don’t listen to how we feel — we listen to what helps us cope.
December 29, 2025 at 9:11 PM
2/
The trend is clear:
📈 more stress- and anxiety-related words
📉 less positive emotion
📉 simpler, more repetitive lyrics
Popular music does reflect rising societal tension.
December 29, 2025 at 9:11 PM
3/
Но парадокс:
во время пандемии COVID музыка стала менее тревожной и более позитивной.

В кризис музыка — не зеркало, а коллективный механизм психологической саморегуляции 🧠🎧

Мы слушаем не то, что чувствуем, а то, что помогает выжить.
December 29, 2025 at 9:06 PM
2/
Результат:
📈 больше слов про стресс, страх и гнев
📉 меньше позитивных эмоций
📉 тексты становятся проще и более повторяющимися
Музыка действительно отражает рост общественного напряжения.
December 29, 2025 at 9:06 PM
8/8
The manuscript remains unread.
But for the first time in centuries,we may understand what kind of mechanism could have created it.
And that brings us significantly closer to the solution.
December 22, 2025 at 8:13 PM
7/8
If this hypothesis is correct,
one “Voynich word” may encode only 1–2 letters of the original text.
Which means that beneath the massive manuscript
there could be a relatively short treatise.
December 22, 2025 at 8:13 PM
6/8
Important: this is not a decipherment of the Voynich Manuscript.
But it is the first strong demonstration that such a strange text could emerge from meaningful plaintext encrypted with a plausible 15th-century system.
December 22, 2025 at 8:13 PM
5/8
The results are striking.
Texts encrypted with Naibbe match the Voynich Manuscript in:
– word length distribution
– symbol frequencies
– entropy
– Zipf’s law
– clusters of similar “word families”
Across 40+ linguistic metrics.
December 22, 2025 at 8:13 PM
4/8
@michaelgreshko.bsky.social introduced a homophonic cipher called Naibbe,
designed to encrypt Latin or Italian using many substitutes per letter and even… playing cards.
Historically plausible.
December 22, 2025 at 8:13 PM