Li, van Vugt and Colarelli consider how our evolutionary past, in ancestral environments, influences the experiences of modern humans. They report that “Human psychological mechanisms are adaptations that evolved to process environmental inputs, turning them into behavioral outputs that, on average, increase survival or reproductive prospects…Modern-day organizations and work arrangements bear little resemblance to human labor practices throughout evolutionary history…The design of most modern work spaces, for example, focuses on space efficiency, forcing people into input-mismatched settings. Modern work spaces tend to be barren and angular and to minimize nature exposure. From an evolutionary perspective, exposure to natural elements is beneficial because they are stimuli that were ancestrally associated with safety and resource abundance…people with greater exposure to natural elements at work are…less depressed and more satisfied with and committed to their jobs (An, Colarelli, O’Brien & Boyajian, 2016).”
Norman Li, Mark van Vugt, and Stephen Colarelli. 2018. “The Evolutionary Mismatch Hypothesis: Implications for Psychological Science.” Current Directions in Psychological Science, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 38-44, https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721417731378
Sally Augustin, PhD,a cognitive scientist, is the editor of Research Design Connections (www.researchdesignconnections.com), a monthly subscription newsletter and free daily blog, where recent and classic research in the social, design, and physical sciences that can inform designers’ work are presented in straightforward language. Readers learn about the latest research findings immediately, before they’re available elsewhere. Sally, who is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, is also the author of Place Advantage: Applied Psychology for Interior Architecture (Wiley, 2009) and, with Cindy Coleman, The Designer’s Guide to Doing Research: Applying Knowledge to Inform Design (Wiley, 2012). She is a principal at Design With Science (www.designwithscience.com) and can be reached at sallyaugustin@designwithscience.com.