Understanding Modern Social Dynamics and Well-Being from an Evolutionary Psychology Perspective
A special issue of Behavioral Sciences (ISSN 2076-328X). This special issue belongs to the section "Social Psychology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2026) | Viewed by 1332
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
A perspective that is gaining traction as a means to understand various issues is evolutionary mismatch. According to Robert Wright, the author of A Short History of Progress, “we are running twenty-first-century software on hardware last upgraded 50,000 years ago or more”. Our mind was designed for an ancestral environment and has not adapted fast enough for today’s rapid cultural and technological changes.
There is an increasing discourse surrounding a “polycrisis”—a convergence of multiple global challenges, including climate change, international conflicts, and the rising cost of living. Concurrently, individuals are confronting a range of psychosocial issues, such as a growing mental health crisis, the abandonment of traditional aspirations like home ownership and family formation, a friendship crisis, and ultra-low fertility rates. Additionally, new social trends are emerging, including rising singlehood, situationships, and the adoption of "furkids" in lieu of children.
This Special Issue aims to explore these complex social dynamics from an evolutionary psychology perspective. We invite manuscripts that investigate how evolved psychological mechanisms interact with contemporary societal pressures to influence individual well-being, relationship patterns, and reproductive behaviors. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
- New evolutionary insights into modern social issues and trends.
- Understanding how the polycrisis interacts with evolved human minds.
- Identifying mismatches between ancestral and contemporary environments and explaining how modern social issues and trends are symptoms of such mismatches.
Contributions that provide novel insights into how modern environments create disparities between evolved human needs and current social realities are particularly welcome.
Dr. Amy Lim
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- evolutionary psychology
- social psychology
- evolutionary mismatch
- modern social issues trends
- polycrisis
- mental health crisis
- low fertility
- friendship crisis
- situationship
- singlehood
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