Genome Lag theory, or ‘Exile from Eden’ hypothesis, suggests that our genes have not kept pace with the changes in our environment. Our genes were originally shaped by natural selection to solve survival problems. However, present day life is very different and Cartwright (2001) suggests this lag in gene development has lead to a number of mental health issues including depression and anxiety.
In 1996 Nesse and Williams studied data from 40,000 people living in five different countries. They found that rates of depression are increasing exponentially, particularly among young people living in highly developed economies. They suggest that the increased use of mass communication, such as the Internet and mobile phones, has lead to large parts of society becoming one huge social group. In the past our skills and methods of coping would have been developed in small groups. We may have compared ourselves to people within our small social group, and even if we weren’t particularly good at one thing we could excel in another within the group. In effect we had a good chance of being the best at something. Nowadays we compare ourselves with people on a global scale, and certain people are held up as ‘perfect examples of the way to be’. According to Nesse and Williams failing to live up to these role-models can lead to depressive states and anxiety.
As for Theodore Kaczynski? He was the first person to put forward the idea of Genome Lag theory when he wrote in the New York Times “We attribute the social and psychological problems of modern society to the fact that society requires people to live under certain conditions radically different from those under which the human race evolved, and to behave in ways that conflict with the patterns of behaviour that the human race developed while living under the earliest conditions”.
Kaczynski was the infamous USA ‘unabomber’ now serving four life sentences for killing people with parcel bombs. A surprising advocate of the Genome Lag hypothesis.
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