{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,23]],"date-time":"2026-10-23T21:36:35Z","timestamp":1792791395820,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":64,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,19]],"date-time":"2026-08-19T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1787097600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychol."],"abstract":"<jats:p>Self-organizing systems utilize information to maintain ordered states. With competitive pressure, these systems optimize toward proxies of their goals\u2014tractable indicators that are informationally useful because they simplify complex objectives, resulting in the survival and prevalence of systems that are most efficient at pursuing proxy targets. While proxy optimization enhances short-term success, it progressively strips away variance upon which long-term adaptation, resilience, and human flourishing depend. Modern technologies escalate these dynamics to intensities without clear evolutionary precedent, operating as a form of hyperselection on proxy-maximizing strategies which lead to increasingly formulaic, homogenized, and sterile environments. The detrimental impact of hyperselection and an overly optimized world\u2014from pop culture and academia to urban design and wellbeing\u2014are discussed in terms of their active role in creating evolutionary mismatch and the importance of seemingly \u201cinefficient\u201d processes as sources of adaptive input.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1904076","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,19]],"date-time":"2026-08-19T05:47:40Z","timestamp":1787118460000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["The sterile society: hyperselection and the loss of adaptive variance"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Jose C.","family":"Yong","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Social and Health Sciences, James Cook University Singapore","place":["Singapore, Singapore"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Simon S.","family":"Groome","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Social Sciences, Singapore Management University","place":["Singapore, Singapore"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Edison","family":"Tan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Social and Health Sciences, James Cook University Singapore","place":["Singapore, Singapore"]},{"name":"School of Social Sciences, Singapore Management University","place":["Singapore, Singapore"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,19]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","author":"Adami","year":"2024","journal-title":"The evolution of biological information: How evolution creates complexity, from viruses to brains"},{"key":"ref2","author":"Allnutt","year":"2025"},{"key":"ref3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.48550\/arXiv.1606.06565","article-title":"Concrete problems in AI safety","author":"Amodei","year":"2016","journal-title":"arXiv"},{"key":"ref4","author":"Anderson","year":"2020"},{"key":"ref5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"911","DOI":"10.1056\/NEJMra020100","article-title":"The effect of infections on susceptibility to autoimmune and allergic diseases","volume":"347","author":"Bach","year":"2002","journal-title":"N. 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