A Deep Dive into Evolutionary Psychology with Adam Sud

Memorable Moments:

• 03:35 – Evolutionary Psychology refers to the ways in which people behave, why they choose to go one way versus another, in regards to the way in which our genes have explored the environment of our evolutionary story.
• 04:58 – All animal life is actually motivated by something called a tripartite motivational system, or a motivational triad, and those are pleasure-seeking, pain avoidance, and energy conservation.
• 13:03 – In the modern environment, when we get a dopamine stimulus, it is what we call a supernormal stimulus that raises our dopamine circuitry way outside the bounds of normal human experience. And our brains don’t really like that. And so what they’re going to do is they’re going to defend themselves against this intense stimulus.
• 15:23 – When you’re habituated to repetitive, consistent supernormal stimulus, the wrong decision feels incredibly right for your survival. And the right decision feels incredibly wrong. 
• 16:01 – The reason why people find themselves in that situation isn’t because they’re broken. It’s because that is their psychology responding exactly the way it’s designed to respond to an environment that is too shifted away from our natural history and our natural behavior. 
• 17:48 – It’s not a fault of theirs, it’s the fault of their environment. And if they are willing to cultivate an environment that looks more indicative of their natural history and their natural behavior—spend two to four weeks living in that environment, their dopamine receptors are going to regain sensitivity. They’re going to recalibrate to an environment that makes sense. 
• 25:02 – What you have to understand is that humans have a psychology of more. We’re trying to get the most for the least every single time. But now for the first time in human history, that decision might not be the best thing to do for our long-term outcome. 
• 25:48 – If you can organize your environment to look like what you want to do, you don’t have to outcompete the environment in order to be successful. 
• 29:10 – Everyone thinks that they’ve got to figure out how to be disciplined enough to do a thing. Instead of trying to become more disciplined, design a more disciplined environment. This is really valuable. Your self-control will always be a lot less necessary when your environment doesn’t require you to depend on it. 

Dear Mind, You Matter is brought to you by NOBU, new mental health, and wellness app. To download NOBU, visit the app store or Google Play. 

This podcast is hosted by Allison Walsh and Dr. Angela Phillips. It is produced by Allison Walsh, Savannah Eckstrom, and Nicole LaNeve. If you’re interested in being a guest on this podcast, please visit www.therecoveryvillage.com/dearmindyoumatter.