3 ms·
That is a good question, and I'm not sure why your question is rarely asked. The answer for ADHD is that modern society is forcing almost everyone to study endl
by vouaobrasil 3y ago
That is a good question, and I'm not sure why your question is rarely asked. The answer for ADHD is that modern society is forcing almost everyone to study endlessly, which is rather ridiculous from an evolutionary point of view. The amount and style of school we have in also rather unnatural for some people, too.
The reason why this system exists is because it is the most effective system, most effective in the sense that it as outcompeted other systems where the pressure for survival was how useful in furthering our industrial age.
In small tribes, people with "ADHD" would likely have easily found a place and no one would really find it unusual if some children weren't good at studying abstract concepts for 6 hours a day...because most wouldn't need to do that.
The fact that ADHD is classified as a disorder is because children with ADHD are simply less effective at serving our highly industralized system, which incidentally is not making us happier, but only more efficient at giving people differential advantages through economic growth, which in turn is making us sicker.
People with ADHD might have a harder time concentrating and sitting still, but it is our society which has the real disease.
- chris_wot 3y agoThe reason the question is rarely asked is because past generations did not do perfectly fine without the medications used today. One sympton of children with ADHD are they have a tendency to be far more impulsive and make far more risky decisions, with some correspondingly awful consequences. That was happening before the disorder was discovered, only at the time no-one knew why the behaviour was occurring.
- vouaobrasil 3y agoOr perhaps the "risky" behavior in a small group was advantageous in terms of kin-benefits (from an evolutionary point of view).
- chris_wot 3y agoIt's an interesting idea, but what is the evidence?
- flir 3y agoIt's evolutionary psychology. It doesn't need evidence. (I honestly think that "a group with members who both seek novelty and avoid it is more likely to prosper than one that doesn't have a mix" is probably true. It's just impossible to prove).
- chris_wot 3y agoAnd people give religion a hard time.
- vouaobrasil 3y ago@chris_wot (since I can't reply past that level): Williams, Jonathan, and Eric Taylor. "The evolution of hyperactivity, impulsivity and cognitive diversity." Journal of the Royal Society Interface 3.8 (2006): 399-413.
- chris_wot 3y agoThank you!
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]