TY - JOUR

T1 - Family Matters:

T2 - Rethinking the Psychology of Human Social Motivation

AU - Ko, Ahra

AU - Pick, Cari M.

AU - Kwon, Jung Yul

AU - Barlev, Michael

AU - Krems, Jaimie Arona

AU - Varnum, Michael E.W.

AU - Neel, Rebecca

AU - Peysha, Mark

AU - Boonyasiriwat, Watcharaporn

AU - Brandstätter, Eduard

AU - Crispim, Ana Carla

AU - Cruz, Julio Eduardo

AU - David, Daniel

AU - David, Oana A.

AU - de Felipe, Renata Pereira

AU - Fetvadjiev, Velichko H.

AU - Fischer, Ronald

AU - Galdi, Silvia

AU - Galindo, Oscar

AU - Golovina, Galina

AU - Gomez-Jacinto, Luis

AU - Graf, Sylvie

AU - Grossmann, Igor

AU - Gul, Pelin

AU - Hamamura, Takeshi

AU - Han, Shihui

AU - Hitokoto, Hidefumi

AU - Hřebíčková, Martina

AU - Johnson, Jennifer Lee

AU - Karl, Johannes A.

AU - Malanchuk, Oksana

AU - Murata, Asuka

AU - Na, Jinkyung

AU - O, Jiaqing

AU - Rizwan, Muhammed

AU - Roth, Eric

AU - Salgado, Sergio Antonio Salgado

AU - Samoylenko, Elena

AU - Savchenko, Tatyana

AU - Sevincer, A. Timur

AU - Stanciu, Adrian

AU - Suh, Eunkook M.

AU - Talhelm, Thomas

AU - Uskul, Ayse K.

AU - Uz, Irem

AU - Zambrano, Danilo

AU - Kenrick, Douglas T.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2019.

PY - 2020/1/1

Y1 - 2020/1/1

N2 - What motives do people prioritize in their social lives? Historically, social psychologists, especially those adopting an evolutionary perspective, have devoted a great deal of research attention to sexual attraction and romantic-partner choice (mate seeking). Research on long-term familial bonds (mate retention and kin care) has been less thoroughly connected to relevant comparative and evolutionary work on other species, and in the case of kin care, these bonds have been less well researched. Examining varied sources of data from 27 societies around the world, we found that people generally view familial motives as primary in importance and mate-seeking motives as relatively low in importance. Compared with other groups, college students, single people, and men place relatively higher emphasis on mate seeking, but even those samples rated kin-care motives as more important. Furthermore, motives linked to long-term familial bonds are positively associated with psychological well-being, but mate-seeking motives are associated with anxiety and depression. We address theoretical and empirical reasons why there has been extensive research on mate seeking and why people prioritize goals related to long-term familial bonds over mating goals. Reallocating relatively greater research effort toward long-term familial relationships would likely yield many interesting new findings relevant to everyday people’s highest social priorities.

AB - What motives do people prioritize in their social lives? Historically, social psychologists, especially those adopting an evolutionary perspective, have devoted a great deal of research attention to sexual attraction and romantic-partner choice (mate seeking). Research on long-term familial bonds (mate retention and kin care) has been less thoroughly connected to relevant comparative and evolutionary work on other species, and in the case of kin care, these bonds have been less well researched. Examining varied sources of data from 27 societies around the world, we found that people generally view familial motives as primary in importance and mate-seeking motives as relatively low in importance. Compared with other groups, college students, single people, and men place relatively higher emphasis on mate seeking, but even those samples rated kin-care motives as more important. Furthermore, motives linked to long-term familial bonds are positively associated with psychological well-being, but mate-seeking motives are associated with anxiety and depression. We address theoretical and empirical reasons why there has been extensive research on mate seeking and why people prioritize goals related to long-term familial bonds over mating goals. Reallocating relatively greater research effort toward long-term familial relationships would likely yield many interesting new findings relevant to everyday people’s highest social priorities.

KW - evolutionary psychology

KW - family

KW - goals

KW - interpersonal relations

KW - motivation

KW - reward

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85073835647&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/1745691619872986

DO - 10.1177/1745691619872986

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 31791196

AN - SCOPUS:85073835647

VL - 15

SP - 173

EP - 201

JO - Perspectives on Psychological Science

JF - Perspectives on Psychological Science

SN - 1745-6916

IS - 1

ER -