Digitally (mis)matched: Ancestral psychologies in a remote workplace

This talk introduces and outlines the case for an evolutionary mismatch between the modern, digitalized workplace and the way human ancestors engaged in activities characterized as work. Psychological adaptations for producing things that our human ancestors needed to survive and (ultimately) reproduce -- such as psychological mechanisms for obtaining and processing food, learning valuable work skills, and finding cooperation partners -- evolved in the context of small and tight networks of hunter-gatherers. These adaptations are central to understanding the significance of work in human evolution. Evolutionary mismatches operate when modern environments cue ancestral adaptations in a manner that no longer provides adaptive benefits. I will argue that the digitalization of the workplace, although highly efficient and mostly productive, is misaligned with some basic human work-related motivations, thereby illuminating a potential dark side of digital work. At the same time, digitalization also offers great opportunities for matching the work environment to our evolved work psychology. I conclude with an empirical agenda for advancing research on digitalization from an evolutionary mismatch perspective and suggest interventions to align the digitalized workplace to human nature.