Dr Adam Hunt

Biography

Dr Adam D. Hunt received his PhD in 2024 from the University of Zürich, for his dissertation titled ‘Evolving Evolutionary Psychiatry and Explaining Neurodiversity’. He has been researching evolutionary psychiatry since 2016, following a BA and MA concentrating on the philosophy of science. He has published several papers with topics ranging from evolutionary approaches to autism and neurodiversity, addiction, the integration of evolutionary perspectives into medicine and psychiatry. His first book 'The Specialised Mind' will be published by Pangrave-Macmillan in Spring 2027. He has organized symposia, workshops, and a special issue on mental health in non-industrialized populations in the journal Evolution, Medicine and Public Health (where he is an associate editor). Dr Hunt is actively involved in academic societies, including roles with the International Society for Evolution, Medicine and Public Health, the Royal College of Psychiatrists' Evolutionary Psychiatry Special Interest Group, and the Foundation for Evolution and Mental Health. His research fellowship is being funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Research

Dr Hunt’s previous research concentrated primarily on strengthening the theoretical foundations of evolutionary psychiatry and explaining neurodiversity evolutionarily; his current research is directed at assessing the practical consequences of evolutionary perspectives on mental health, particularly via destigmatising and altering patient and public attitudes.

Key Publications

Key publications

Hunt, A.D; Jaeggi, A.V. (2025) “The DCIDE framework: systematic investigation of evolutionary hypotheses, exempliﬁed with autism” Biological Reviews, doi: 10.1111/brv.70010
Hunt, A.D; Procyshyn, T. (2024) “Changing Perspectives on Autism: Overlapping Contributions of Evolutionary Psychiatry and the Neurodiversity Movement” Autism Research, https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.3078
Hunt, A.D; Merola, G.P; Carpenter, T; Jaeggi, A.V. “Evolutionary perspectives on Substance and Behavioural Addictions: distinct and shared pathways to understanding, prediction and prevention” Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105603
Hunt, A.D. (2023) “Making Wakefield Workable: The Fitness and Function Framework for Taxonomising Evolutionary Dysfunction.” PsyArXiv. doi:10.31234/osf.io/qbgke.
Hunt, A.D. (2023) “Making Wakefield Warranted: The Hierarchy of Healing Harm and Discerning Dysfunction.” PsyArXiv. doi:10.31234/osf.io/jmsnx.
Katiyar, T*; Hunt, A.D*; Chaudhary, N; Jaeggi, A. V. (2023) “An Antidote to Overpathologizing Computer-mediated Communication: An Evolutionary Perspective on Mixed Effects of Mismatch.” PsyArXiv. doi:10.31234/osf.io/t4azn.
Hunt, A.D; St John Smith, P; Abed, R. (2023) “Evobiopsychosocial Medicine” Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, pp.67–77 doi:10.1093/emph/eoac041
Hunt, A. D.; Jaeggi, A.V. (2022) “Specialised minds: extending adaptive explanations of personality to the evolution of psychopathology”, Evolutionary Human Sciences
Hunt, A.D; St John Smith, P; Abed, R. (2022) “The Biopsychosocial Model Advanced by Evolutionary Theory” in Evolutionary Psychiatry: Current Perspectives on Evolution and Mental Health edited by Abed, R and St John-Smith, P.

Other Professional Activities

Communications Director for the International Society for Evolution, Medicine and Public Health (ISEMPH)

Executive Committee member of the Evolutionary Psychiatry Special Interest Group, Royal College of Psychiatrists

Trustee, Foundation for Evolution and Mental Health

Job Titles

Swiss National Science Foundation Fellow, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research

General Info

Available for consultancy

Research Expertise / Fields of study

Human Evolutionary and Behavioural Ecology

Human Evolution

Contact Details

ah2422 [a] cam.ac.uk

Adam Hunt

Affiliations

Person keywords

Evolutionary Psychiatry

Anthropology

Mental Health

Autism

Stigmatisation

Subjects

Biological Anthropology

Themes

Human Evolutionary Studies

Biography

Research

Key Publications

Other Professional Activities

Job Titles

General Info

Contact Details

Affiliations

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