12 Things Everyone Should Know About Evolutionary Psychology

11. Evolutionary Mismatch

Another crucial concept in the evolutionary psychologist’s arsenal is evolutionary mismatch. The mismatch in question is that between the environment in which we spent most of our evolutionary history and the environment we inhabit today.

Mismatch explains many maladaptive tendencies that we see in the modern world. At the top of the list is our love of junk food - in particular, the junk food we find in the candy aisle.

Humans, like many primates, have a sweet tooth. In our natural environment, this led us to eat healthy, calorie-rich foods such as fruits, honey, and yams. In the modern environment, however, we’re suddenly surrounded by foods that push the same buttons as the natural foods but are decidedly less healthy: everything from chocolate to soft drinks to Pop-Tarts. This means that our sweet tooth - which once served us so well - now nudges us toward foods that, if eaten in excess, can harm our health and wellbeing.

The basic idea is shown in the graph below. And it’s not just junk food; mismatch explains many modern behaviors that make little evolutionary sense, including smoking, recreational drug use, and birth control.