Abstract
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.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 173-201 |
Number of pages | 29 |
Journal | Perspectives on Psychological Science |
Volume | 15 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 1 2020 |
Keywords
- evolutionary psychology
- family
- goals
- interpersonal relations
- motivation
- reward
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Psychology
Fingerprint
Dive into the research topics of 'Family Matters: Rethinking the Psychology of Human Social Motivation'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Datasets
-
Ko_Supplemental_Material – Supplemental material for Family Matters: Rethinking the Psychology of Human Social Motivation
Ko, A. (Contributor), Pick, C. M. (Creator), Kwon, J. Y. (Creator), Barlev, M. (Creator), Krems, J. A. (Creator), Varnum, M. (Creator), Neel, R. (Creator), Peysha, M. (Creator), Boonyasiriwat, W. (Contributor), Brandstätter, E. (Creator), Crispim, A. C. (Creator), Cruz, J. E. (Creator), David, D. (Creator), David, O. A. (Creator), de Felipe, R. P. (Contributor), Fetvadjiev, V. H. (Contributor), Fischer, R. (Creator), Galdi, S. (Creator), Galindo, O. (Creator), Golovina, G. (Creator), Gomez-Jacinto, L. (Creator), Graf, S. (Creator), Grossmann, I. (Creator), Gul, P. (Creator), Hamamura, T. (Creator), Han, S. (Contributor), Hitokoto, H. (Creator), Hřebíčková, M. (Creator), Johnson, J. L. (Creator), Karl, J. A. (Creator), Malanchuk, O. (Creator), Murata, A. (Creator), Na, J. (Contributor), O, J. (Contributor), Rizwan, M. (Creator), Roth, E. (Creator), Salgado, S. A. S. (Creator), Samoylenko, E. (Creator), Savchenko, T. (Creator), Sevincer, A. T. (Contributor), Stanciu, A. (Creator), Suh, E. M. (Contributor), Talhelm, T. (Creator), Uskul, A. K. (Contributor), Uz, I. (Contributor), Zambrano, D. (Creator), Kenrick, D. (Creator), Hamamura, T. (Creator) & Shihui, H. (Contributor), SAGE Journals, 2019
DOI: 10.25384/sage.11316911, https://sage.figshare.com/articles/Ko_Supplemental_Material_Supplemental_material_for_Family_Matters_Rethinking_the_Psychology_of_Human_Social_Motivation/11316911
Dataset
-
Ko_Supplemental_Figure – Supplemental material for Family Matters: Rethinking the Psychology of Human Social Motivation
Ko, A. (Contributor), Pick, C. M. (Creator), Kwon, J. Y. (Creator), Barlev, M. (Creator), Krems, J. A. (Creator), Varnum, M. (Creator), Neel, R. (Creator), Peysha, M. (Creator), Boonyasiriwat, W. (Contributor), Brandstätter, E. (Creator), Crispim, A. C. (Creator), Cruz, J. E. (Creator), David, D. (Creator), David, O. A. (Creator), de Felipe, R. P. (Contributor), Fetvadjiev, V. H. (Contributor), Fischer, R. (Creator), Galdi, S. (Creator), Galindo, O. (Creator), Golovina, G. (Creator), Gomez-Jacinto, L. (Creator), Graf, S. (Creator), Grossmann, I. (Creator), Gul, P. (Creator), Hamamura, T. (Creator), Han, S. (Contributor), Hitokoto, H. (Creator), Hřebíčková, M. (Creator), Johnson, J. L. (Creator), Karl, J. A. (Creator), Malanchuk, O. (Creator), Murata, A. (Creator), Na, J. (Contributor), O, J. (Contributor), Rizwan, M. (Creator), Roth, E. (Creator), Salgado, S. A. S. (Creator), Samoylenko, E. (Creator), Savchenko, T. (Creator), Sevincer, A. T. (Contributor), Stanciu, A. (Creator), Suh, E. M. (Contributor), Talhelm, T. (Creator), Uskul, A. K. (Contributor), Uz, I. (Contributor), Zambrano, D. (Creator), Kenrick, D. (Creator), Hamamura, T. (Creator) & Shihui, H. (Contributor), figshare SAGE Publications, 2019
DOI: 10.25384/sage.11316908.v1, https://sage.figshare.com/articles/Ko_Supplemental_Figure_Supplemental_material_for_Family_Matters_Rethinking_the_Psychology_of_Human_Social_Motivation/11316908/1
Dataset
-
Ko_Supplemental_Material – Supplemental material for Family Matters: Rethinking the Psychology of Human Social Motivation
Ko, A. (Contributor), Pick, C. M. (Creator), Kwon, J. Y. (Creator), Barlev, M. (Creator), Krems, J. A. (Creator), Varnum, M. (Creator), Neel, R. (Creator), Peysha, M. (Creator), Boonyasiriwat, W. (Contributor), Brandstätter, E. (Creator), Crispim, A. C. (Creator), Cruz, J. E. (Creator), David, D. (Creator), David, O. A. (Creator), de Felipe, R. P. (Contributor), Fetvadjiev, V. H. (Contributor), Fischer, R. (Creator), Galdi, S. (Creator), Galindo, O. (Creator), Golovina, G. (Creator), Gomez-Jacinto, L. (Creator), Graf, S. (Creator), Grossmann, I. (Creator), Gul, P. (Creator), Hamamura, T. (Creator), Han, S. (Contributor), Hitokoto, H. (Creator), Hřebíčková, M. (Creator), Johnson, J. L. (Creator), Karl, J. A. (Creator), Malanchuk, O. (Creator), Murata, A. (Creator), Na, J. (Contributor), O, J. (Contributor), Rizwan, M. (Creator), Roth, E. (Creator), Salgado, S. A. S. (Creator), Samoylenko, E. (Creator), Savchenko, T. (Creator), Sevincer, A. T. (Contributor), Stanciu, A. (Creator), Suh, E. M. (Contributor), Talhelm, T. (Creator), Uskul, A. K. (Contributor), Uz, I. (Contributor), Zambrano, D. (Creator), Kenrick, D. (Creator), Hamamura, T. (Creator) & Shihui, H. (Contributor), figshare SAGE Publications, 2019
DOI: 10.25384/sage.11316911.v1, https://sage.figshare.com/articles/Ko_Supplemental_Material_Supplemental_material_for_Family_Matters_Rethinking_the_Psychology_of_Human_Social_Motivation/11316911/1
Dataset