“Hunter-gatherer” versus “farmer” traits: How they could be linked to ADHD

What are “hunter-gatherer” traits?

The “hunter-gatherer” brain is curious, fast-moving, and mobile.

Hunter-gatherer societies would rely on the land around them to survive. This meant they’d need to move around often, travelling in search of what they needed.

People with ADHD traits often:

• Respond quickly to changes in their environment
• Seek novelty and stimulation
• Struggle with sustained focus on slow or repetitive tasks
• Make faster, impulsive decisions

These qualities might have actually been ideal for early humans who were navigating unpredictable environments.

A recent study supports this idea too. It found that people who scored themselves higher on ADHD traits made faster, more efficient decisions in virtual foraging tasks - which led to them collecting more rewards overall.^[1] Impulsivity and a drive for reward helped people with ADHD traits adapt quickly and explore new options faster.

What are “farmer” traits?

Farming required a different set of skills to hunter-gathering:

• Patience – waiting for crops to grow
• Repetition – doing the same tasks each day
• Planning – storing food, managing resources, preparing for future seasons
• Focus – staying on one task for a long time

Traits like these became more valuable as humans shifted from moving through landscapes to settling down and building structured societies.

This shift could explain why ADHD traits that were once considered useful can now clash with modern demands like desk jobs or structured working routines.^{4 5}

How might hunter/gatherer and farmer traits have worked?

Division of labour

In early human societies, not everyone hunted or farmed. People likely took on different roles based on their natural strengths.

→ Someone with quick instincts and high energy might have made a better scout, forager or hunter.

→ Others who were more cautious and methodical could have managed fires, gathered plants, or cared for children.

Evolution doesn’t tend to produce one “perfect” type of human — it favours variation. In early human groups, having a mix of temperaments and cognitive styles would’ve increased the group’s chances of survival.^{1 3}

Environmental mismatch

Around 12,000 years ago, hunter-gatherer societies started to fall out of practice.

As humans settled down to farm and build cities, priorities shifted:

Long-term planning and delayed rewards became more important.

Social norms favoured sitting still, following rules, and working quietly.

Traits like distractibility, restlessness or impulsivity - which might have once saved lives or helped find food - now conflict with classroom rules, office expectations, and rigid schedules.

This is called an evolutionary mismatch: when our brains are wired for one kind of environment but we live in another.^{3 4}

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References

1. Swanepoel, A., et al. (2017). How evolutionary thinking can help us to understand ADHD. BJPsych Advances, [online] 23(6), pp.410–418.
2. Hoogland, M. and Ploeger, A. (2022). Two Different Mismatches: Integrating the Developmental and the Evolutionary-Mismatch Hypothesis. Perspectives on Psychological Science, [online] 17(6), pp.1737–1745.
3. Esteller-Cucala, P., et al. (2020). Genomic analysis of the natural history of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder using Neanderthal and ancient Homo sapiens samples. Scientific Reports, [online] 10(1), p.8622.
4. Williams, J. and Taylor, E. (2005). The evolution of hyperactivity, impulsivity and cognitive diversity. Journal of The Royal Society Interface, [online] 3(8), pp.399–413.
5. Barack, D.L., et al. (2024). Attention deficits linked with proclivity to explore while foraging. Proceedings of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 291(2017).