Mismatch Hypothesis Research Articles

Social Media Ills and Evolutionary Mismatches: A Conceptual Framework

From the erosion of mental well-being through incessant comparison, unrealistic portrayals, and addiction, the negative effects of social media are well-documented. However, it is necessary to move beyond the simplistic characterizations of social media as inherently either beneficial or detrimental and, instead, underscore the nuanced mechanisms that underlie its adverse outcomes. To this end, this paper delineates a conceptual framework grounded in evolutionary psychology, designed to explain the prevalent negative repercussions often linked to the utilization of social media. Specifically, we argue that these “social media ills” are manifestations of evolutionary mismatches between social media features and our evolved mechanism designed for social living. We start by reviewing how our psychological mechanisms—sociometer, social monitoring system, and social comparison—facilitate living within complex social situations and fulfill our fundamental need to belong. We then identify features of social media that may hijack these processes to produce the consequences we observe today. We have also recommended several evolutionarily informed directions policymakers and social media companies can undertake to treat social media ills at their root cause. This article concludes by discussing the theoretical implications and interventions the evolutionary mismatch hypothesis provides.

Pollinator competition and the contingency of nectar depletion during an early spring resource pulse.

Concerns about competition between pollinators are predicated on the assumption of floral resource limitation. Floral resource limitation, however, is a complex phenomenon involving the interplay of resource production by plants, resource demand by pollinators, and exogenous factors-like weather conditions-that constrain both plants and pollinators. In this study, we examined nectar limitation during the mass flowering of rosaceous fruit trees in early spring. Our study was set in the same region as a previous study that found severe nectar limitation in summer grasslands. We used this seasonal contrast to evaluate two alternative hypotheses concerning the seasonal dynamics of floral resource limitation: either (H1) rates of resource production and consumption are matched through seasonal time to maintain a consistent degree of resource limitation, or (H2) a mismatch of high floral resource production and low pollinator activity in early spring creates a period of relaxed resource limitation that intensifies later in the year. We found generally much lower depletion in our spring study compared to the near 100% depletion found in the summer study, but depletion rates varied markedly through diel time and across sampling days, with afternoon depletion rates sometimes exceeding 80%. In some cases, there were also pronounced differences in depletion rates across simultaneously sampled floral species, indicating different degrees of nectar exploitation. These findings generally support the seasonal mismatch hypothesis (H2) but underscore the complex contingency of nectar depletion. The challenge of future work is to discern how the fluctuation of resource limitation across diel, inter-diel, and seasonal time scales translates into population-level outcomes for pollinators.

Reassessing the Spatial Mismatch Hypothesis

Using Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics data, we demonstrate several facts that are not consistent with the “spatial mismatch” hypothesis that residential segregation and uneven distribution of jobs limit Black workers' opportunities. We show that (a) there is no Black-White gap in the firm premium component of wages in an Abowd-Kramarz-Margolis wage decomposition; (b) there are both more jobs and more good jobs within commuting distance of Black than White workers; and (c) Black workers' commutes are shorter. We conclude that geographic proximity to good jobs is not a major source of racial earnings gaps in major US cities today.

Thermal ecology shapes disease outcomes of entomopathogenic fungi infecting warm-adapted insects

The thermal environment is a critical determinant of outcomes in host-pathogen interactions, yet the complexities of this relationship remain underexplored in many ecological systems. We examined the Thermal Mismatch Hypothesis (TMH) by measuring phenotypic variation in individual thermal performance profiles using a model system of two species of entomopathogenic fungi (EPF) that differ in their ecological niche, Metarhizium brunneum and M. flavoviride, and a warm-adapted model host, the mealworm Tenebrio molitor. We conducted experiments across ecologically relevant temperatures to determine the thermal performance curves for growth and virulence, measured as % survival, identify critical thresholds for these measures, and elucidate interactive host-pathogen effects. Both EPF species and the host exhibited a shared growth optima at 28 °C, while the host’s growth response was moderated in sublethal pathogen infections that depended on fungus identity and temperature. However, variances in virulence patterns were different between pathogens. The fungus M. brunneum exhibited a broader optimal temperature range (23–28 °C) for virulence than M. flavoviride, which displayed a multiphasic virulence-temperature relationship with distinct peaks at 18 and 28 °C. Contrary to predictions of the TMH, both EPF displayed peak virulence at the host's optimal temperature (28 °C). The thermal profile for M. brunneum aligned more closely with that of T. molitor than that for M. flavoviride. Moreover, the individual thermal profile of M. flavoviride closely paralleled its virulence thermal profile, whereas the virulence thermal profile of M. brunneum did not track with its individual thermal performance. This suggests an indirect, midrange (23 °C) effect, where M. brunneum virulence exceeded growth. These findings suggest that the evolutionary histories and ecological adaptations of these EPF species have produced distinct thermal niches during the host interaction. This study contributes to our understanding of thermal ecology in host-pathogen interactions, underpinning the ecological and evolutionary factors that shape infection outcomes in entomopathogenic fungi. The study has ecological implications for insect population dynamics in the face of a changing climate, as well as practically for the use of these organisms in biological control.

Match or Mismatch of Expectation-Realization Behind the Motives in Supporting Social Entrepreneurship Programs

Abundant studies regarding motives in social enterprise have been conducted but have barely explored the gaps between motivational expectations and realizations. Particularly in waste bank studies, such a study has yet to be scholarly discussed. Using expectancy theory and mismatch hypotheses, this study explored the motives in waste bank participation towards owners/managers and customers and measured the gaps between the motive expectations and realizations. Quantitative comparison tests were employed on 45 Indonesian waste bank owners/managers and 162 customers whose data were collected directly and through online surveys. The findings reveal that the most expected motive was the environmental, while the least was the economic; this went for both waste bank owners/managers and customers. The results also show that severe mismatches occurred between expectations and realizations, in which the most significant gap for waste bank owners/managers was educational, while the environmental motive was the biggest for customers. This study's findings enrich the social entrepreneurship literature by showing that the motives per se are insufficient to reveal individuals' actual situations in supporting the social programs, as disparities are very likely to occur between expectations and realities. The gap analysis in this study provides a different alternative to conducting studies related to the underlying motives for supporting social entrepreneurship programs.

Human access constrains optimal foraging and habitat availability in an avian generalist.

Animals balance costs of antipredator behaviors with resource acquisition to minimize hunting and other mortality risks and maximize their physiological condition. This inherent trade-off between forage abundance, its quality, and mortality risk is intensified in human-dominated landscapes because fragmentation, habitat loss, and degradation of natural vegetation communities is often coupled with artificially enhanced vegetation (i.e., food plots), creating high-risk, high-reward resource selection decisions. Our goal was to evaluate autumn-winter resource selection trade-offs for an intensively hunted avian generalist. We hypothesized human access was a reliable cue for hunting predation risk. Therefore, we predicted resource selection patterns would be spatiotemporally dependent upon levels of access and associated perceived risk. Specifically, we evaluated resource selection of local-scale flights between diel periods for 426 mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) relative to wetland type, forage quality, and differing levels of human access across hunting and nonhunting seasons. Mallards selected areas that prohibited human access and generally avoided areas that allowed access diurnally, especially during the hunting season. Mallards compensated by selecting for high-energy and greater quality foraging patches on allowable human access areas nocturnally when they were devoid of hunters. Postseason selection across human access gradients did not return to prehunting levels immediately, perhaps suggesting a delayed response to reacclimate to nonhunted activities and thus agreeing with the assessment mismatch hypothesis. Last, wetland availability and human access constrained selection for optimal natural forage quality (i.e., seed biomass and forage productivity) diurnally during preseason and hunting season, respectively; however, mallards were freed from these constraints nocturnally during hunting season and postseason periods. Our results suggest risk-avoidance of human accessible (i.e., hunted) areas is a primary driver of resource selection behaviors by mallards and could be a local to landscape-level process influencing distributions, instead of forage abundance and quality, which has long-been assumed by waterfowl conservation planners in North America. Broadly, even an avian generalist, well adapted to anthropogenic landscapes, avoids areas where hunting and human access are allowed. Future conservation planning and implementation must consider management for recreational access (i.e., people) equally important as foraging habitat management for wintering waterfowl.

Re-Assessing the Spatial Mismatch Hypothesis

Re-Assessing the Spatial Mismatch Hypothesis

Integrating the Thrifty Genotype and Evolutionary Mismatch Hypotheses to understand variation in cardiometabolic disease risk.

More than 60 years ago, James Neel proposed the Thrifty Genotype Hypothesis to explain the widespread prevalence of type 2 diabetes in Western, industrial contexts. This hypothesis posits that variants linked to conservative energy usage and increased fat deposition would have been favored throughout human evolution due to the advantages they could provide during periods of resource limitation. However, in industrial environments, these variants instead produce an increased risk of obesity, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and related health issues. This hypothesis has been popular and impactful, with thousands of citations, many ongoing debates, and several spin-off theories in biomedicine, evolutionary biology, and anthropology. However, despite great attention, the applicability and utility of the Thrifty Genotype Hypothesis (TGH) to modern human health remains, in our opinion, unresolved. To move research in this area forward, we first discuss the original formulation of the TGH and its critiques. Second, we trace the TGH to updated hypotheses that are currently at the forefront of the evolutionary medicine literature-namely, the Evolutionary Mismatch Hypothesis. Third, we lay out empirical predictions for updated hypotheses and evaluate them against the current literature. Finally, we discuss study designs that could be fruitful for filling current knowledge gaps; here, we focus on partnerships with subsistence-level groups undergoing lifestyle transitions, and we present data from an ongoing study with the Orang Asli of Malaysia to illustrate this point. Overall, we hope this synthesis will guide new empirical research aimed at understanding how the human evolutionary past interacts with our modern environments to influence cardiometabolic health.

Applying an evolutionary mismatch framework to understand disease susceptibility.

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are on the rise worldwide. Obesity, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes are among a long list of "lifestyle" diseases that were rare throughout human history but are now common. The evolutionary mismatch hypothesis posits that humans evolved in environments that radically differ from those we currently experience; consequently, traits that were once advantageous may now be "mismatched" and disease causing. At the genetic level, this hypothesis predicts that loci with a history of selection will exhibit "genotype by environment" (GxE) interactions, with different health effects in "ancestral" versus "modern" environments. To identify such loci, we advocate for combining genomic tools in partnership with subsistence-level groups experiencing rapid lifestyle change. In these populations, comparisons of individuals falling on opposite extremes of the "matched" to "mismatched" spectrum are uniquely possible. More broadly, the work we propose will inform our understanding of environmental and genetic risk factors for NCDs across diverse ancestries and cultures.

Phenological overlap of terrestrial and marine food resources did not reduce salmon consumption by Kodiak brown bears

Climate change is altering the predictability of timing of resource pulses and how consumers interact with them, resulting in phenomena placed under the trophic mismatch hypothesis (TMH). This occurs when a consumer fails to overlap and capitalize on availability of a key food resource pulse. Such changes to predator-prey interactions can alter nutrient transfer, destabilize food webs, and reduce species reproduction and survival. Brown bears (Ursus arctos) on the Kodiak Archipelago, Alaska, USA, have purportedly altered their foraging toward increased use of terrestrial resources under TMH. We examined how the extent of within- and across-year overlap between abundances of Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) and berries altered salmon assimilation by brown bears on the Kodiak Archipelago during 2015–2017. We further examined whether salmon consumption differed with brown bear sex and age. We found no decrease in salmon assimilation in response to variation in terrestrial and marine food overlap across and within years. Overall salmon assimilation was high, representing over 60% of brown bear diets in 2015 and 2017, with lower (44%) consumption of salmon in 2016 corresponding with a 28% reduction in salmon abundance. Within years, monthly salmon assimilation was lower in June when salmon began to enter the system, then increased and remained similar during July–October, despite 0–71% within month overlap in peak salmon and berry availability. Older brown bears, particularly males, consumed more salmon than did females and younger bears. While the potential ecosystem impacts of TMH may pose a lesser threat to brown bears than previously reported, possible future declines in Pacific salmon abundance due to climate change may adversely affect North American coastal brown bear populations by reducing abundance of this important food source.

Choice and consequence: Assessing mismatch at Chicago exam schools

The educational mismatch hypothesis asserts that students are hurt by affirmative action policies placing them in selective schools for which they wouldn’t otherwise qualify. We evaluate mismatch in Chicago’s selective public exam schools, which admit students using neighborhood-based diversity criteria as well as test scores. Regression discontinuity estimates for applicants favored by affirmative action indeed show no gains in reading and negative effects of exam school attendance on math scores and four-year college enrollment. But these results are similar for more- and less-selective schools and for applicants more and less likely to benefit from affirmative action, a pattern inconsistent with mismatch. We show that Chicago exam school effects are determined largely by the schools attended when not offered an exam school seat. In particular, apparent mismatch is explained by the fact that exam school admission diverts many applicants from high-performing Noble Network charter schools, where they would have done well. Consistent with these findings, exam schools reduce math scores for applicants applying from high-quality charter schools in another large urban district. Exam school applicants’ previous achievement, race, and other demographic characteristics that are sometimes said to mediate student-school matching play no role in this story.

Beyond Cultural Mismatch Theories: The Role of Antiblackness in School Discipline and Social Control Practices

Black students face hyper-disciplining and high levels of social control when they enter American schools. The cultural mismatch hypothesis attempts to explain this hyper-disciplining by arguing that the mostly White teaching force misinterprets the attitudes and behaviors of Black students, which leads to their hyper-disciplining. Utilizing a longitudinal, deeply iterative, participatory, and critical ethnographic research process, however, this article shows that traditional scholarship around the cultural mismatch hypothesis is insufficient. The analysis indicates that teachers’ misinterpretation of mismatched capital (the traditional cultural mismatch hypothesis) is actually a racialized interpretation of both matched and mismatched capital coming from Black students, and such racialized interpretations are guided by the logic of antiblackness endemic to American institutions. Hence, this research argues for the integration of antiblackness as a theoretical tool to expand upon cultural mismatch explanations and for the creation of educational spaces where Black students are recognized, valued, and treated with dignity and humanization.

How buses alleviate unemployment and poverty: Lessons from a natural experiment in Clayton County, GA

Many studies have documented the linkage between public transportation and economic outcomes, though there is relatively little empirical evidence on the consequences of losing existing transit services, especially bus services, which disproportionately serve low-income populations. We investigate the impacts of bus access on poverty and employment using a natural experiment in Clayton County, GA, where the local bus transit was terminated between 2010 and 2015. Using a difference-in-difference approach, we find substantial increases in poverty and unemployment rates in affected neighbourhoods during the five-year period. Our findings suggest both the spatial mismatch hypothesis, which predicts the reduction in transit access can lead to reductions in job accessibility and employment, and the residential sorting hypothesis, which states that poor households gravitate towards neighbourhoods with better transit access, could be at play. Overall, we find strong evidence that disruptions in bus transit could have significant adverse impacts on neighbourhood economic outcomes. Our findings underscore the need for federal and local public transportation funding to help improve job access, alleviate poverty, and maintain neighbourhood stability.

Mismatch in the Workplace: Exploring Racial Gaps in Labor Market Outcomes under the Mismatch Hypothesis Using the after the JD Study.

Mismatch in the Workplace: Exploring Racial Gaps in Labor Market Outcomes under the Mismatch Hypothesis Using the after the JD Study.

Dietary stress remodels the genetic architecture of lifespan variation in outbred Drosophila.

Evolutionary theory suggests that lifespan-reducing alleles should be purged from the gene pool, and yet decades of genome-wide association and model organism studies have shown that they persist. One potential explanation is that alleles that regulate lifespan do so only in certain environmental contexts. We exposed outbred Drosophila to control and high-sugar diets and genotyped more than 10,000 adult flies to track allele frequency changes over the course of a single adult lifespan. We identified thousands of lifespan-associated alleles associated with early versus late-life trade-offs, late-onset effects and genotype-by-environment interactions. Remarkably, a third of lifespan-associated genetic variation had environmentally dependent effects on lifespan. We find that lifespan-reducing alleles are often recently derived, have stronger effects on a high-sugar diet and show signatures of selection in wild Drosophila populations, consistent with the evolutionary mismatch hypothesis. Our results provide insight into the highly polygenic and context-dependent genetic architecture of lifespan variation and the evolutionary processes that shape this key trait.

Can birth weight predict offspring’s lung function in adult age? Evidence from two Swedish birth cohorts

BackgroundAssociations between birth weight (BW) and adult lung function have been inconsistent and limited to early adulthood. We aimed to study this association in two population-based cohorts and explore if BW, adjusted for gestational age, predicts adult lung function. We also tested adult lung function impairment according to the mis-match hypothesis—small babies growing big as adults.MethodsWe included 3495 individuals (aged 46.4 ± 5.4 years) from the Malmo Preventive Project (MPP), Sweden, born between 1921 and 1949, and 1401 young to middle-aged individuals (aged 28.6 ± 6.7 years) from the Malmo Offspring Study (MOS) with complete data on BW and gestational age. Adult lung function (forced vital capacity [FVC], forced expiratory volume in one second [FEV1] and the FEV1/FVC-ratio) were analysed as level of impairment (z-score), using multiple linear and logistic regressions.ResultsBW (z-score) did not predict adult lung function in MPP, whereas BW was a significant (p = 0.003) predictor of FEV1 following full adjustment in MOS. For every additional unit increase in BW, children were 0.77 (95% CI 0.65–0.92) times less likely to have impaired adult lung function (FEV1). Moreover, adults born with lower BW (< 3510 g) showed improved lung function (FEV1 and FEV1/FVC in MOS and MPP, respectively) if they achieved higher adult body weight.ConclusionsAdults born with lower birth weight, adjusted for gestational age, are more likely to have impaired lung function, seen in a younger birth cohort. Postnatal growth pattern may, however, compensate for low birth weight and contribute to better adult lung function.

Does Job Accessibility Matter in the Suburbs? Black Suburbia, Job Accessibility, and Employment Outcomes

The spatial mismatch hypothesis of John Kain proposes that geographic separation between residential locations and jobs creates a spatial barrier in accessing job opportunities, which has a negative impact on labor market outcomes. A key hypothesis is that Black populations have limited accessibility to suburban job opportunities due to residential segregation in the city, resulting in lower employment and earnings. However, the spatial structure of the U.S. metropolitan area has changed since then, with increased polycentric employment growth and Black suburbanization. This challenges Kain’s original hypothesis that residential segregation in the city creates a spatial barrier in accessing jobs. The spatial pattern of mismatch has changed and demonstrates a mismatch between Black suburbs and suburban jobs. Then, what role does job accessibility play in the change in the spatial pattern of mismatch? Does job accessibility continue to matter in the suburbs? Or, are there other more important neighborhood characteristics affecting labor market outcomes? The findings demonstrate that job accessibility remains closely associated with Black labor market outcomes. In Chicago, job accessibility has higher marginal effects on Black employment, especially in predominantly Black neighborhoods. However, in Atlanta, where a majority of the Black population lives in the suburbs, having a higher percentage of Black residents in the neighborhood negates the effects of job accessibility. Instead, the share of Black residents becomes a more significant factor in employment. The findings demonstrate that the effect of job accessibility varies by the spatial pattern of mismatch. Job accessibility becomes less important in highly segregated suburbs, but the share of Black residents matters more in labor market outcomes. In metropolitan areas with the traditional mismatch pattern, job accessibility is significantly associated with employment and earnings, especially in neighborhoods where the majority of the Black population remains segregated in the city.

Recent intra‐metropolitan patterns of spatial mismatch: Implications for black suburbanization and the changing geography of mismatch

AbstractKain's spatial mismatch hypothesis (SMH) (1968) highlights the segregation of Black population in the inner city as well as the decentralization of jobs, both of which played a role in the poor labor market outcomes for Black residents in the inner city. Demographic and economic changes in U.S. metropolitan areas since the late 20th century have transformed the urban spatial structure. This paper aims to revisit the SMH and investigate whether the spatial pattern of mismatch has changed as a result of geographic shifts in the Black population. This paper specifically examines how the suburbanization of the Black population has affected the geographic patterns of mismatch and whether the mismatch is disappearing in the major U.S. metropolitan areas. Using spatial measures of mismatch, this paper presents intra‐metropolitan spatial mismatch patterns that capture the clustering of jobs and the Black population based on their relative distributions, showing that the overall level of spatial mismatch declined in major U.S. metropolitan areas between 2000 and 2015. However, geographical evidence reveals that the spatial mismatch has shifted to the outer suburbs, replicating city‐suburb spatial inequality, implying that although mismatch may have declined in the inner city due to Black suburbanization, spatial mismatch continue to persist in U.S. metropolitan areas in Black suburbs. The findings also demonstrate that although spatial mismatch generally declined in the inner city, it increased in cities with high inner city polarization, particularly New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle.

Mismatch and Coupling: A Study on the Synergistic Development of Tourism-Economy-Ecology Systems in the Pearl River Delta

The integrated study of the tourism-economy-ecosystem plays a significant role in regional high-quality development. In this study, methods including the Spatial Mismatch Hypothesis (SMH), coupling coordination degree and a gravity model are adopted in combination to explore the evolution characteristics of the Tourism-Economy-Ecology (TEE) systems in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) from 2009 to 2019 from four perspectives: development level, spatial mismatch, coupling coordination and spatial mismatch-coupling coordination. The research results are presented as follows. Firstly, the overall development level of the three subsystems shows improvement, the overall pattern of tourism and economic development levels shows similarity, the polarization of tourism development reaches a relatively significant level, and the changes in the ecological subsystem are more significant than those in other subsystems. Secondly, the spatial mismatch direction and level of cities are relatively stable, and the mismatch index of high-grade cities varies considerably, while the tourism subsystem contributes significantly to the occurrence of spatial mismatch in the regional system. Thirdly, the coupling and coordination level of the system in the east is higher than in the west, with a vast majority of them in the state of near-mismatch, while the coupling and coordination state is more stable in most cities and tends to be coordinated. Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Foshan represent the crucial nodes of regional system coupling and coordination. The opening of high-speed railway lines enhances the connection between cities, and it remains necessary to enhance the coupling and coordination across various economic circles. Lastly, according to the comparison of spatial mismatch-coupling coordination linkage, these cities can be classified into three categories: prominent core cities, coordinating sub-cities, and potential peripheral cities. To be specific, Guangzhou and Shenzhen represent prominent core cities, Dongguan, Foshan and Huizhou represent coordinated secondary cities, and Zhuhai, Zhongshan, Jiangmen and Zhaoqing represent potential peripheral cities.

Spawning overlap of Japanese anchovy Engraulis japonicus and Japanese Spanish mackerel Scomberomorus niphonius in the coastal Yellow Sea: A prey–predator interaction

AbstractJapanese Spanish mackerel Scomberomorus niphonius and Japanese anchovy Engraulis japonicus are typical predator and prey species, respectively, with high commercial values in the China seas. However, the interspecific interaction, particularly the relationship between the two species during early life stages, is unclear. Here, based on ichthyoplankton surveys in the coastal Yellow Sea during 2013–2018, we analyzed the relationship between the two species based on egg occurrence and abundance in the context of species interaction. Spawning optimal temperature were examined for anchovy (13.0–18.0°C) and mackerel (15.0–20.0°C) based on egg occurrences and abundances in relation to sea surface temperature. We confirmed the peak spawning periods (May and June) and primary spawning areas (Haizhou Bay) for both mackerel and anchovy based on spatiotemporal distributions of two species eggs. Mackerel showed a high spawning overlap with anchovy, and anchovy egg abundance were also higher in overlap areas. Anchovy egg abundance may be more important for mackerel spawning than environmental variables, suggesting the significance of prey for predators during early recruitment. The temperature also has important effects on mackerel spawning and could be a threshold affecting mackerel spawning activity. Mackerel might have evolved a spawning strategy of short‐term spawning timed to coincide with the peak spawning of anchovy in the coastal Yellow Sea. These results highlight the effects of interspecific relationships on spawning strategy of anchovy and mackerel in the coastal Yellow Sea and may provide some insights for early recruitment studies of piscivorous fishes in the context of the match–mismatch hypothesis.