Adam Hunt
@realadamhunt.bsky.social
Researcher at Cambridge. PhD in evolutionary psychiatry. Explaining neurodiversity, improving methods & stigma. 'Evolving Psychiatry' podcast host.
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Adam Hunt
@realadamhunt.bsky.social
· Mar 14
New paper🎉 just published🎉 in Biological Reviews 🎉
We propose a new gold standard to avoid “just-so” storytelling in evolutionary inference & apply it to autism. It’s been 9 years (!!) in the making.
We propose a new gold standard to avoid “just-so” storytelling in evolutionary inference & apply it to autism. It’s been 9 years (!!) in the making.
Depression may have evolved as the mind’s energy-saving mode—pause the pursuit, reassess the plan, survive the winter. Modern life has removed the off-season, so shutdown becomes chronic. The mechanism still works; the context no longer does.
November 26, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Depression may have evolved as the mind’s energy-saving mode—pause the pursuit, reassess the plan, survive the winter. Modern life has removed the off-season, so shutdown becomes chronic. The mechanism still works; the context no longer does.
Neurodiversity policy works best when viewed as ecological design, not accommodation. Instead of “fixing” individuals, adjust the niche—work rhythms, light, noise, coordination style—to match evolved variance in attention and arousal patterns.
November 25, 2025 at 4:47 AM
Neurodiversity policy works best when viewed as ecological design, not accommodation. Instead of “fixing” individuals, adjust the niche—work rhythms, light, noise, coordination style—to match evolved variance in attention and arousal patterns.
Across anxiety, ADHD and depression, an evolutionary psychiatry lens asks why vulnerabilities persist. Mismatch, trade-offs and adaptive calibration provide unifying explanations that neurobiology alone can’t.
buff.ly/ipZ34vS
buff.ly/ipZ34vS
Why Do Mental Disorders Persist? (Chapter 6) - Evolutionary Psychiatry
Evolutionary Psychiatry - September 2022
buff.ly
November 24, 2025 at 4:32 AM
Across anxiety, ADHD and depression, an evolutionary psychiatry lens asks why vulnerabilities persist. Mismatch, trade-offs and adaptive calibration provide unifying explanations that neurobiology alone can’t.
buff.ly/ipZ34vS
buff.ly/ipZ34vS
Anxiety is a prediction engine built for forests, not inboxes. It evolved to model risk, not to live inside permanent uncertainty. When everything is possible but nothing is visible, the alarm doesn’t know when to turn off.
November 23, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Anxiety is a prediction engine built for forests, not inboxes. It evolved to model risk, not to live inside permanent uncertainty. When everything is possible but nothing is visible, the alarm doesn’t know when to turn off.
Evolutionary Psychiatry aims to integrate biology, psychology, and anthropology to ask a critical question: Why do mechanisms that evolved for adaptive regulation sometimes lead to pathology? 'Answering' this question seems to me to have the potential to unlock so much good for the world.
November 22, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Evolutionary Psychiatry aims to integrate biology, psychology, and anthropology to ask a critical question: Why do mechanisms that evolved for adaptive regulation sometimes lead to pathology? 'Answering' this question seems to me to have the potential to unlock so much good for the world.
Low mood may function as a mechanism of disengagement — reducing motivation to pursue unproductive goals and reallocating cognitive resources. Consider whether we might view depression as adaptive in origin, though due to 'mismatch' between modern and ancestral environments, pathological today.
November 20, 2025 at 8:46 PM
Low mood may function as a mechanism of disengagement — reducing motivation to pursue unproductive goals and reallocating cognitive resources. Consider whether we might view depression as adaptive in origin, though due to 'mismatch' between modern and ancestral environments, pathological today.
ADHD as an oversensitivity to stimuli: we call them “attention disorders,” but perhaps we just built an environment where attention itself is under attack. A brain that can’t filter noise looks ill only when the world won’t stop shouting.
November 17, 2025 at 11:30 AM
ADHD as an oversensitivity to stimuli: we call them “attention disorders,” but perhaps we just built an environment where attention itself is under attack. A brain that can’t filter noise looks ill only when the world won’t stop shouting.
When the eyes stop finding depth and variation, thought flattens too. Sensory ecology predicts it: monotony is not calm, it’s starvation of information.
November 13, 2025 at 11:30 AM
When the eyes stop finding depth and variation, thought flattens too. Sensory ecology predicts it: monotony is not calm, it’s starvation of information.
We evolved to expect feedback from faces, not screens. The nervous system still measures safety by eye contact, tone, and shared rhythm. A thousand “likes” can’t replace a single nod across a table. At least, not until we are all safely encultured in the coming AI-linked bodysuits :)
November 11, 2025 at 11:30 AM
We evolved to expect feedback from faces, not screens. The nervous system still measures safety by eye contact, tone, and shared rhythm. A thousand “likes” can’t replace a single nod across a table. At least, not until we are all safely encultured in the coming AI-linked bodysuits :)
Anxiety isn’t always over-reaction. Sometimes it’s under-stimulation: the body looking for cues it no longer finds. Subtle sensory change—light, sound, air—can quiet the search. Not in the more extreme cases, of course, but a lit incense stick and an open window does wonders for me, personally.
November 10, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Anxiety isn’t always over-reaction. Sometimes it’s under-stimulation: the body looking for cues it no longer finds. Subtle sensory change—light, sound, air—can quiet the search. Not in the more extreme cases, of course, but a lit incense stick and an open window does wonders for me, personally.
We often chase efficiency by standardising roles. Yet human systems, like natural ones, depend on redundancy — overlapping skills, divergent styles. Resilience; adaptation to changing environments [and the environment is always changing] often hides in the inefficiencies we prune away.
November 7, 2025 at 2:49 PM
We often chase efficiency by standardising roles. Yet human systems, like natural ones, depend on redundancy — overlapping skills, divergent styles. Resilience; adaptation to changing environments [and the environment is always changing] often hides in the inefficiencies we prune away.
A brain evolved to track rustling leaves still tries to track rustling tabs. It’s doing its best. But the design brief was different.
November 5, 2025 at 11:30 AM
A brain evolved to track rustling leaves still tries to track rustling tabs. It’s doing its best. But the design brief was different.
Reposted by Adam Hunt
My first paper, out in PsychReview!!
Along with @orbenamy.bsky.social, Nik & @jaeggiadrian.bsky.social, @realadamhunt.bsky.social & I revisit an old theoretical question using concepts from evo psychiatry and anthro:
Why do mixed associations exist b/w social media & mental health?
A 🧵
Along with @orbenamy.bsky.social, Nik & @jaeggiadrian.bsky.social, @realadamhunt.bsky.social & I revisit an old theoretical question using concepts from evo psychiatry and anthro:
Why do mixed associations exist b/w social media & mental health?
A 🧵
November 4, 2025 at 8:04 AM
My first paper, out in PsychReview!!
Along with @orbenamy.bsky.social, Nik & @jaeggiadrian.bsky.social, @realadamhunt.bsky.social & I revisit an old theoretical question using concepts from evo psychiatry and anthro:
Why do mixed associations exist b/w social media & mental health?
A 🧵
Along with @orbenamy.bsky.social, Nik & @jaeggiadrian.bsky.social, @realadamhunt.bsky.social & I revisit an old theoretical question using concepts from evo psychiatry and anthro:
Why do mixed associations exist b/w social media & mental health?
A 🧵
Every organisation is an ecosystem of specialisations. This isn't just theoretical - it's a reality inherent to all complex systems. Perhaps, then, the question isn’t necessarily “who fits our culture?” but “what niche are we failing to create?”
November 3, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Every organisation is an ecosystem of specialisations. This isn't just theoretical - it's a reality inherent to all complex systems. Perhaps, then, the question isn’t necessarily “who fits our culture?” but “what niche are we failing to create?”
"Neurodivergent individuals represent an estimated 15-20% of the global population, yet they continue to face significant barriers to workplace inclusion....reduces reliance on disclosure by implementing universal support, while also fostering a culture that makes voluntary disclosure safe."
October 30, 2025 at 2:49 PM
"Neurodivergent individuals represent an estimated 15-20% of the global population, yet they continue to face significant barriers to workplace inclusion....reduces reliance on disclosure by implementing universal support, while also fostering a culture that makes voluntary disclosure safe."
A new systematic review (April 2025) of neurodiversity in computing education highlights that many interventions lack empirical support...
"Most papers provided curricular recommendations that lacked empirical evidence to support those recommendations."
"Most papers provided curricular recommendations that lacked empirical evidence to support those recommendations."
October 29, 2025 at 2:49 PM
A new systematic review (April 2025) of neurodiversity in computing education highlights that many interventions lack empirical support...
"Most papers provided curricular recommendations that lacked empirical evidence to support those recommendations."
"Most papers provided curricular recommendations that lacked empirical evidence to support those recommendations."
A recent review (19 Aug 2025) suggests 'grouping anxiety disorders into broader categories – namely, fear-dominant, mixed, and anxiety-dominant'. Plausible that evolutionary analysis of those distinct categories would be useful.
www.nature.com
October 27, 2025 at 11:30 AM
A recent review (19 Aug 2025) suggests 'grouping anxiety disorders into broader categories – namely, fear-dominant, mixed, and anxiety-dominant'. Plausible that evolutionary analysis of those distinct categories would be useful.
A new scoping review finds that trust, social identification, communication, incentives and norms are key levers in group cooperation across commons and organisations. Interesting stuff - link in thread.
October 24, 2025 at 1:49 PM
A new scoping review finds that trust, social identification, communication, incentives and norms are key levers in group cooperation across commons and organisations. Interesting stuff - link in thread.
"The ‘I’ in Egalitarianism: Hadza Hunter-Gatherers Averse to Inequality Primarily when Personally Unfavourable" finds interesting patterns about inequality aversion in small-scale societies - basically, they're selfish too! Norms are needed to keep selfishness in check...
October 22, 2025 at 10:30 AM
"The ‘I’ in Egalitarianism: Hadza Hunter-Gatherers Averse to Inequality Primarily when Personally Unfavourable" finds interesting patterns about inequality aversion in small-scale societies - basically, they're selfish too! Norms are needed to keep selfishness in check...
Coalition instincts are double-edged: they bind teams but can create silos. The solution isn’t to eliminate group identity - rather, it’s to build nested loyalties: project, team, organisation. Hierarchies of belonging mirror the social scaffolds humans evolved with - family, extended family, tribe.
October 20, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Coalition instincts are double-edged: they bind teams but can create silos. The solution isn’t to eliminate group identity - rather, it’s to build nested loyalties: project, team, organisation. Hierarchies of belonging mirror the social scaffolds humans evolved with - family, extended family, tribe.
Teaching and learning from others is the critical human skill. We are motivated through the impressions we leave on others in our peer group. Education that reintroduces imitation and small-group practice reconnects students with evolved incentives.
October 17, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Teaching and learning from others is the critical human skill. We are motivated through the impressions we leave on others in our peer group. Education that reintroduces imitation and small-group practice reconnects students with evolved incentives.
Smartphones are critical to modern working life, we can hardly do without them - nor should we. But our attention systems evolved to be too sensitive to microscopic interruptions.
October 15, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Smartphones are critical to modern working life, we can hardly do without them - nor should we. But our attention systems evolved to be too sensitive to microscopic interruptions.
"...Late chronotypes had a 7 % lower depression risk per extra hour of daylight exposure..." A longitudinal study shows that daylight exposure is linked to lower depression scores - independent of exercise and social contact, at least in "night owls" (late chronotypes.)
October 13, 2025 at 1:49 PM
"...Late chronotypes had a 7 % lower depression risk per extra hour of daylight exposure..." A longitudinal study shows that daylight exposure is linked to lower depression scores - independent of exercise and social contact, at least in "night owls" (late chronotypes.)
A recent mapping review recommends that managing neurodiversity in work settings should emphasise systemic structure, not only individual accommodations. In mismatch terms, the structure should adapt to varied cognitive niches, not expect uniform minds.
October 9, 2025 at 10:30 AM
A recent mapping review recommends that managing neurodiversity in work settings should emphasise systemic structure, not only individual accommodations. In mismatch terms, the structure should adapt to varied cognitive niches, not expect uniform minds.
A large new survey finds misconceptions of ADHD and autism among corporate employees, even when awareness is high. Interesting to wonder how much hinges on simplistic 'broken brain' explanatory models
October 6, 2025 at 1:49 PM
A large new survey finds misconceptions of ADHD and autism among corporate employees, even when awareness is high. Interesting to wonder how much hinges on simplistic 'broken brain' explanatory models