Ecopsychology and evolutionary psychology: implications and limitations of habitat selection theory

This paper discusses how evolutionary psychology can be applied to ecopsychology, with particular emphasis on habitat selection theory as a way of making sense of preferences for natural environments. We argue that the usefulness of habitat selection theory is limited by a prevailing view of slow human evolution, where humans are seen to be best adapted to a hunter-gatherer way of life on the African savanna. Research suggests otherwise, that humans have adapted to a range of different environments and have continued to evolve since the birth of agriculture. Thus, humans today do not long for the African savanna. Implications follow for future research in ecopsychology and the design of the built environment.