Adam Hunt
@realadamhunt.bsky.social
Researcher at Cambridge. PhD in evolutionary psychiatry. Explaining neurodiversity, improving methods & stigma. 'Evolving Psychiatry' podcast host.
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.
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.
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 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.
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?”
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.
Why is everyone so 'Anxious?' One potential answer, hugely overlooked, is simply that our brains evolved to be hypersensitive to tiny social threats—slight status shifts, non-verbal signals. In today’s large but flattened hierarchies, many social feedback loops feel ambiguous!
October 4, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Why is everyone so 'Anxious?' One potential answer, hugely overlooked, is simply that our brains evolved to be hypersensitive to tiny social threats—slight status shifts, non-verbal signals. In today’s large but flattened hierarchies, many social feedback loops feel ambiguous!
These effects derived from more mixed pre-post dynamics – although the evolutionary arm was repeatedly stronger than genetics (an aside: the unchangeability measure was -more- unchangeable, so perhaps aligning with the negative pre-post impact on psychosocial intervention)
September 10, 2025 at 4:49 PM
These effects derived from more mixed pre-post dynamics – although the evolutionary arm was repeatedly stronger than genetics (an aside: the unchangeability measure was -more- unchangeable, so perhaps aligning with the negative pre-post impact on psychosocial intervention)
We asked other questions which we didn’t pre-register as primary hypotheses – about expected effectiveness of combined medication and psychotherapy, individual’s role to control anxiety, unchangeability of symptoms and depth of understanding anxiety disorder.
September 10, 2025 at 4:49 PM
We asked other questions which we didn’t pre-register as primary hypotheses – about expected effectiveness of combined medication and psychotherapy, individual’s role to control anxiety, unchangeability of symptoms and depth of understanding anxiety disorder.
Here you can see the raw data plotted for 6 of our primary hypotheses:
September 10, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Here you can see the raw data plotted for 6 of our primary hypotheses:
In exploratory analysis we discovered that most pre-post effects were driven by positive effect of evolutionary education; although evolutionary education had a small negative pre-post effect on expected efficacy of psychosocial intervention – but genetics was worse.
September 10, 2025 at 4:49 PM
In exploratory analysis we discovered that most pre-post effects were driven by positive effect of evolutionary education; although evolutionary education had a small negative pre-post effect on expected efficacy of psychosocial intervention – but genetics was worse.
In comparison to the genetic explanation, the evolutionary explanation led to a more positive response than the genetics explanation on every single one of the measures we pre-registered as our primary hypotheses!
September 10, 2025 at 4:49 PM
In comparison to the genetic explanation, the evolutionary explanation led to a more positive response than the genetics explanation on every single one of the measures we pre-registered as our primary hypotheses!
Results were resoundingly positive: For example, compared to the genetic explanation, clinicians rated the evolutionary explanation as substantially more useful for patients (Odds Ratio=5.05) and for clinicians (OR=3.10]). Huge mean effect sizes, of 1.07 SD and 0.76 SD!
September 10, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Results were resoundingly positive: For example, compared to the genetic explanation, clinicians rated the evolutionary explanation as substantially more useful for patients (Odds Ratio=5.05) and for clinicians (OR=3.10]). Huge mean effect sizes, of 1.07 SD and 0.76 SD!
Presentations were derived in a standardised manner from a genetics review paper by Ask et al. and a chapter by
Randolph Nesse. Educators were psychiatrists-in-training, blinded to study design - including the questionnaires given to participants.
Randolph Nesse. Educators were psychiatrists-in-training, blinded to study design - including the questionnaires given to participants.
September 10, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Presentations were derived in a standardised manner from a genetics review paper by Ask et al. and a chapter by
Randolph Nesse. Educators were psychiatrists-in-training, blinded to study design - including the questionnaires given to participants.
Randolph Nesse. Educators were psychiatrists-in-training, blinded to study design - including the questionnaires given to participants.
🎉New pre-print!🎉
“Our findings represent the most robust evidence to date that evolutionary psychiatry offers normalising causal stories with various positive effects, in this case by casting anxiety as a calibrated defence system that can overshoot in contemporary contexts."
“Our findings represent the most robust evidence to date that evolutionary psychiatry offers normalising causal stories with various positive effects, in this case by casting anxiety as a calibrated defence system that can overshoot in contemporary contexts."
September 10, 2025 at 4:49 PM
🎉New pre-print!🎉
“Our findings represent the most robust evidence to date that evolutionary psychiatry offers normalising causal stories with various positive effects, in this case by casting anxiety as a calibrated defence system that can overshoot in contemporary contexts."
“Our findings represent the most robust evidence to date that evolutionary psychiatry offers normalising causal stories with various positive effects, in this case by casting anxiety as a calibrated defence system that can overshoot in contemporary contexts."
Humans evolved as long distance runners... But this was another level.
Last weekend I crewed one of my best friends as he ran 100 miles, up and down hills on the South Downs, in 26 hours and 45 minutes.
An incredible achievement. Honored to be there for the journey!
Last weekend I crewed one of my best friends as he ran 100 miles, up and down hills on the South Downs, in 26 hours and 45 minutes.
An incredible achievement. Honored to be there for the journey!
June 18, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Humans evolved as long distance runners... But this was another level.
Last weekend I crewed one of my best friends as he ran 100 miles, up and down hills on the South Downs, in 26 hours and 45 minutes.
An incredible achievement. Honored to be there for the journey!
Last weekend I crewed one of my best friends as he ran 100 miles, up and down hills on the South Downs, in 26 hours and 45 minutes.
An incredible achievement. Honored to be there for the journey!
Tinbergen's Four Questions -
A recursive stack of explanations that from near-mode to far-mode causality. From the 'Physical Mechanism' underlying the behaviour, to what the fitness value of a behaviour was from the concrete to the abstract.
A recursive stack of explanations that from near-mode to far-mode causality. From the 'Physical Mechanism' underlying the behaviour, to what the fitness value of a behaviour was from the concrete to the abstract.
June 13, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Tinbergen's Four Questions -
A recursive stack of explanations that from near-mode to far-mode causality. From the 'Physical Mechanism' underlying the behaviour, to what the fitness value of a behaviour was from the concrete to the abstract.
A recursive stack of explanations that from near-mode to far-mode causality. From the 'Physical Mechanism' underlying the behaviour, to what the fitness value of a behaviour was from the concrete to the abstract.
Every day I receive an email from 'The Transmitter', sponsored by 'Spectrum' and funded by the Simons Foundation - originally tasked with better understanding autism...
I get that it's cool science but.... this research has never really helped anyone right?
I get that it's cool science but.... this research has never really helped anyone right?
June 13, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Every day I receive an email from 'The Transmitter', sponsored by 'Spectrum' and funded by the Simons Foundation - originally tasked with better understanding autism...
I get that it's cool science but.... this research has never really helped anyone right?
I get that it's cool science but.... this research has never really helped anyone right?
From enhanced risk-taking in ADHD to the social deception strategies of psychopathy, each row in the table shows a proposed “trade-off.” While these traits can lead to impairment, they may also reflect specialized abilities that, under certain ecological or social conditions, conferred an edge
June 10, 2025 at 1:49 PM
From enhanced risk-taking in ADHD to the social deception strategies of psychopathy, each row in the table shows a proposed “trade-off.” While these traits can lead to impairment, they may also reflect specialized abilities that, under certain ecological or social conditions, conferred an edge
Homo Sapiens have a very rare ability to obtain calories from decaying fruit. Our appreciation for alcohol being a happy-side effect of this trait, then co-opted for socialising
June 2, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Homo Sapiens have a very rare ability to obtain calories from decaying fruit. Our appreciation for alcohol being a happy-side effect of this trait, then co-opted for socialising