TY - JOUR

T1 - Family still matters

T2 - Human social motivation across 42 countries during a global pandemic

AU - Pick, Cari M.

AU - Ko, Ahra

AU - Wormley, Alexandra S.

AU - Wiezel, Adi

AU - Kenrick, Douglas T.

AU - Al-Shawaf, Laith

AU - Barry, Oumar

AU - Bereby-Meyer, Yoella

AU - Boonyasiriwat, Watcharaporn

AU - Brandstätter, Eduard

AU - Crispim, Ana Carla

AU - Cruz, Julio Eduardo

AU - David, Daniel

AU - David, Oana A.

AU - Defelipe, Renata Pereira

AU - Elmas, Pinar

AU - Espinosa, Agustín

AU - Fernandez, Ana Maria

AU - Fetvadjiev, Velichko H.

AU - Fetvadjieva, Stefka

AU - Fischer, Ronald

AU - Galdi, Silvia

AU - Galindo-Caballero, Oscar Javier

AU - Golovina, Galina M.

AU - Gomez-Jacinto, Luis

AU - Graf, Sylvie

AU - Grossmann, Igor

AU - Gul, Pelin

AU - Halama, Peter

AU - Hamamura, Takeshi

AU - Hansson, Lina S.

AU - Hitokoto, Hidefumi

AU - Hřebíčková, Martina

AU - Ilic, Darinka

AU - Johnson, Jennifer Lee

AU - Kara-Yakoubian, Mane

AU - Karl, Johannes A.

AU - Kohút, Michal

AU - Lasselin, Julie

AU - Li, Norman P.

AU - Mafra, Anthonieta Looman

AU - Malanchuk, Oksana

AU - Moran, Simone

AU - Murata, Asuka

AU - Ndiaye, Serigne Abdou Lahat

AU - O, Jiaqing

AU - Onyishi, Ike E.

AU - Pasay-an, Eddieson

AU - Rizwan, Muhammed

AU - Roth, Eric

AU - Salgado, Sergio

AU - Samoylenko, Elena S.

AU - Savchenko, Tatyana N.

AU - Sevincer, A. Timur

AU - Skoog, Eric

AU - Stanciu, Adrian

AU - Suh, Eunkook M.

AU - Sznycer, Daniel

AU - Talhelm, Thomas

AU - Ugwu, Fabian O.

AU - Uskul, Ayse K.

AU - Uz, Irem

AU - Valentova, Jaroslava Varella

AU - Varella, Marco Antonio Correa

AU - Zambrano, Danilo

AU - Varnum, Michael E.W.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Elsevier Inc.

PY - 2022/11/1

Y1 - 2022/11/1

N2 - The COVID-19 pandemic caused drastic social changes for many people, including separation from friends and coworkers, enforced close contact with family, and reductions in mobility. Here we assess the extent to which people's evolutionarily-relevant basic motivations and goals—fundamental social motives such as Affiliation and Kin Care—might have been affected. To address this question, we gathered data on fundamental social motives in 42 countries (N = 15,915) across two waves, including 19 countries (N = 10,907) for which data were gathered both before and during the pandemic (pre-pandemic wave: 32 countries, N = 8998; 3302 male, 5585 female; Mage = 24.43, SD = 7.91; mid-pandemic wave: 29 countries, N = 6917; 2249 male, 4218 female; Mage = 28.59, SD = 11.31). Samples include data collected online (e.g., Prolific, MTurk), at universities, and via community sampling. We found that Disease Avoidance motivation was substantially higher during the pandemic, and that most of the other fundamental social motives showed small, yet significant, differences across waves. Most sensibly, concern with caring for one's children was higher during the pandemic, and concerns with Mate Seeking and Status were lower. Earlier findings showing the prioritization of family motives over mating motives (and even over Disease Avoidance motives) were replicated during the pandemic. Finally, well-being remained positively associated with family-related motives and negatively associated with mating motives during the pandemic, as in the pre-pandemic samples. Our results provide further evidence for the robust primacy of family-related motivations even during this unique disruption of social life.

AB - The COVID-19 pandemic caused drastic social changes for many people, including separation from friends and coworkers, enforced close contact with family, and reductions in mobility. Here we assess the extent to which people's evolutionarily-relevant basic motivations and goals—fundamental social motives such as Affiliation and Kin Care—might have been affected. To address this question, we gathered data on fundamental social motives in 42 countries (N = 15,915) across two waves, including 19 countries (N = 10,907) for which data were gathered both before and during the pandemic (pre-pandemic wave: 32 countries, N = 8998; 3302 male, 5585 female; Mage = 24.43, SD = 7.91; mid-pandemic wave: 29 countries, N = 6917; 2249 male, 4218 female; Mage = 28.59, SD = 11.31). Samples include data collected online (e.g., Prolific, MTurk), at universities, and via community sampling. We found that Disease Avoidance motivation was substantially higher during the pandemic, and that most of the other fundamental social motives showed small, yet significant, differences across waves. Most sensibly, concern with caring for one's children was higher during the pandemic, and concerns with Mate Seeking and Status were lower. Earlier findings showing the prioritization of family motives over mating motives (and even over Disease Avoidance motives) were replicated during the pandemic. Finally, well-being remained positively associated with family-related motives and negatively associated with mating motives during the pandemic, as in the pre-pandemic samples. Our results provide further evidence for the robust primacy of family-related motivations even during this unique disruption of social life.

KW - COVID-19

KW - Cross-cultural research

KW - Family

KW - Fundamental social motives

KW - Life satisfaction

KW - Psychology

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85139346902&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/12c10b3e-c3b6-3e98-ac3f-ec9135d4c839/

U2 - 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2022.09.003

DO - 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2022.09.003

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 36217369

AN - SCOPUS:85139346902

VL - 43

SP - 527

EP - 535

JO - Evolution and Human Behavior

JF - Evolution and Human Behavior

SN - 1090-5138

IS - 6

ER -