Fundamental Social Motives Research Articles

Motivations to Enhance One’s Facial Hair: Affiliation, Rivalry, and Stress

Facial hair is a sexually dimorphic trait with potential evolutionary and sociocultural functions. Bearded men are perceived as dominant, aggressive, and masculine, but also as having better parenting skills. Men may intentionally manage the amount and shape of their facial hair as a part of their self-promotion strategy; however, facial hair management entails costs in terms of time, effort, and money. We explored psychological factors associated with facial hair enhancement motivation among men. A total of 414 men (aged 18–40 years) reported the current amount of their facial hair along with their facial hair enhancement motivations, gender role stress, intrasexual competitiveness, and fundamental social motives. Willingness to care for facial hair was associated with the amount of facial hair men claimed to have and correlated with the fundamental social motives of affiliation and social status, intrasexual competition, and gender role stress. Therefore, facial hair enhancement may be regarded as a self-presentation strategy aimed at acquiring a beneficial position in social networks.

Evolving motivations? Cross-cultural data show links between fundamental social motives and fertility.

Evolving motivations? Cross-cultural data show links between fundamental social motives and fertility.

Supplemental Material for Evolving Motivations? Cross-Cultural Data Show Links Between Fundamental Social Motives and Fertility

Supplemental Material for Evolving Motivations? Cross-Cultural Data Show Links Between Fundamental Social Motives and Fertility

Advancing the study of fitness-related motivational forces: The links between reproductive motivation and fundamental social motives

Advancing the study of fitness-related motivational forces: The links between reproductive motivation and fundamental social motives

What social lives do single people want? A person-centered approach to identifying profiles of social motives among singles.

Despite the worldwide increase in unpartnered individuals (i.e., singles), little research exists to provide a comprehensive understanding of the heterogeneity within this population. In the present research (N = 3,195), we drew on the fundamental social motives framework to provide a theory-based description and understanding of different "types" of single individuals. Across two Western samples (primarily European and American) and one Korean sample (all collected during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-2021), we identified three groups of singles with relatively consistent motivational patterns: (a) singles with strong independence motives and little interest in affiliation, mating, or status (i.e., independent profile); (b) singles with great interest in self-protection as well as social connections and status (i.e., socially focused profile); and (c) singles with little interest in self-protection but moderate interest in affiliation (i.e., low safety focus profile). Notably, these profile features did not perfectly replicate in one smaller Western sample collected before the pandemic (particularly the low safety focus profile), highlighting the need to interpret the data with the historical background in mind. Across samples, the independence-oriented group of singles consistently reported greater satisfaction with singlehood compared to other groups. The three groups of singles also showed substantial differences in other affective and behavioral variables (e.g., how they spend their social time). These findings advance the growing body of research on singlehood by offering new theoretical perspectives on different types of singles. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

COVID-19 symptoms and compliance: The mediating role of fundamental social motives.

Understanding the compliance of infected individuals and the psychological process underlying compliance during pandemics is important for preventing and controlling the spread of pathogens. Our study investigated whether fundamental social motives mediate the relationship between having infectious disease and compliance. An online survey was conducted in March 2020, during the severe phase of the COVID-19 outbreak in China to collect data from 15,758 participants. The survey comprised self-report questionnaires with items pertaining to current symptoms (COVID-19 symptoms, other symptoms or no symptoms), the Fundamental Social Motive Inventory, and measures of compliance. Correlation analysis, linear regression analysis, and structural equation model were used for data analysis. The participants with COVID-19 symptoms had lower levels of compliance than those without symptoms, and their lower compliance was caused by a decrease in disease avoidance (indirect effect = -0.058, 95% CI = [-0.061, -0.056]) and familial motives (indirect effect = -0.113, 95% CI = [-0.116, -0.062]). Whereas exclusion concern (indirect effect = 0.014, 95% CI = [0.011, 0.017]) suppressed the effects of COVID-19 symptoms on compliance, the effect disappeared in the multiple mediation model, while those of disease avoidance and familial motives remained. Our findings emphasize the critical role of disease avoidance and familial motives in promoting compliance with public health norms during pandemics and suggest that enhancing these motives may serve as an effective intervention strategy to mitigate noncompliance among potentially infected individuals.

Motivated to compete but not to care: The fundamental social motives of risk-taking behaviors

Based on the evolutionary framework of risk-taking, the present study aims to examine how the fundamental social motives relate to health risks, interpersonal risks and deviant non-violent behaviors as a function of sex and across different life stages of transitioning to adulthood. A total of 1370 Spanish adolescents and young individuals participated in the survey study. The results showed that status-seeking and kin care (family) were the principal social motives related to risk-taking behaviors. Specifically, status-seeking acted as a promoting factor of risk-taking behaviors, while kin care (family) exerted the opposite effect. Therefore, the results in general demonstrate the significant role of the fundamental social motives on risk-taking behaviors. The impact of sex and age group on the relationship between social motives and risk-taking behaviors is discussed.

Core social motives explain responses to collective action issues

AbstractManaging collective action issues such as pandemics and climate change requires major social and behavioral change. Dominant approaches to addressing these issues center around information provision and financial incentives to shift behavior, yet, these approaches are rarely effective without integrating insights from psychological research on motivation. By accurately characterizing human motives, social scientists can identify when and why individuals engage, and facilitate behavior change and public engagement. Here, we use the core social motives model to sort social psychological theories into five fundamental social motives: to Belong, Understand, Control, self‐Enhance, and Trust. We explain how each motive can improve or worsen collective action issues, and how this framework can be further developed towards a comprehensive social psychological perspective to collective action issues.

A joke for you, a status-boost for men: Men's tendency to tell affiliative jokes is related to their self-promotion style

A sense of humor is a desirable characteristic in both romantic and platonic relationships, and people communicate their sense of humor by telling jokes. However, there are sex differences in joking, so men tell jokes more often than women. Men’s benefits from joking correspond with such fundamental social motives, as mate seeking and mate retention, affiliation, and self-protection. However, less is known about the relation between tendency to tell jokes and more general styles of self-presentation, that is, tactical ways of behaving that can be used in many social interactions. In our study (N = 139 Polish men aged 18 to 60 [M = 29.94, SD = 11.66]), we wanted to examine the relationships between self-presentation styles (e.g., self-promotion and self-depreciation), humor styles (e.g., affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating), and tendency to tell jokes in adult men. We found that men focused on self-promotion produced humor more often and their humor styles contained more affiliative and self-enhancement aspects. Moreover, men's use of affiliative humor completely mediated the relationship between their self-promotion and their tendency to joke. We also found that men oriented on self-depreciation use more self-defeating humor, but their self-defeating motivation does not correlate with their tendency to joke. Our results suggest that men may tell jokes, especially those involving affiliative humor, to tactically achieve their self-promotion goals.

The Ecology-Culture Dataset: A new resource for investigating cultural variation

Scholars interested in cultural diversity have long suggested that similarities and differences across human populations might be understood, at least in part, as stemming from differences in the social and physical ecologies individuals inhabit. Here, we describe the EcoCultural Dataset (ECD), the most comprehensive compilation to date of country-level ecological and cultural variables around the globe. ECD covers 220 countries, 9 ecological variables operationalized by 11 statistical metrics (including measures of variability and predictability), and 72 cultural variables (including values, personality traits, fundamental social motives, subjective well-being, tightness-looseness, indices of corruption, social capital, and gender inequality). This rich dataset can be used to identify novel relationships between ecological and cultural variables, to assess the overall relationship between ecology and culture, to explore the consequences of interactions between different ecological variables, and to construct new indices of cultural distance.

Family still matters: Human social motivation across 42 countries during a global pandemic.

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.

Fundamental social motives measured across forty-two cultures in two waves

How does psychology vary across human societies? The fundamental social motives framework adopts an evolutionary approach to capture the broad range of human social goals within a taxonomy of ancestrally recurring threats and opportunities. These motives—self-protection, disease avoidance, affiliation, status, mate acquisition, mate retention, and kin care—are high in fitness relevance and everyday salience, yet understudied cross-culturally. Here, we gathered data on these motives in 42 countries (N = 15,915) in two cross-sectional waves, including 19 countries (N = 10,907) for which data were gathered in both waves. Wave 1 was collected from mid-2016 through late 2019 (32 countries, N = 8,998; 3,302 male, 5,585 female; Mage = 24.43, SD = 7.91). Wave 2 was collected from April through November 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic (29 countries, N = 6,917; 2,249 male, 4,218 female; Mage = 28.59, SD = 11.31). These data can be used to assess differences and similarities in people’s fundamental social motives both across and within cultures, at different time points, and in relation to other commonly studied cultural indicators and outcomes.

Cover your mouth! Disease avoidance predicts the stigmatization of yawning

Despite presenting several physiological and social benefits, yawning remains a highly stigmatized behavior across various cultures. Given evidence for an association between illness and the proclivity to yawn, it could be possible that yawning provides a heuristic cue to disease transmission between conspecifics. This aversion to yawning could thus serve as a disease avoidance strategy. The current study identified how individual differences in disease avoidance motivations could foster stigmatization of yawning. Participants completed personality inventories, including those related to disease avoidance and disgust, while indicating their attitudes toward various bodily functions. Individual differences in germ aversion and pathogen disgust were particularly associated with stigmatization of yawning, such that higher levels of these traits fostered greater aversion toward yawning. These data provide initial evidence for how fundamental social motives can facilitate reactions to involuntary behaviors.

What Motives Do People Most Want to Know About When Meeting Another Person? An Investigation Into Prioritization of Information About Seven Fundamental Motives.

What information about a person's personality do people want to know? Prior research has focused on behavioral traits, but personality is also characterized in terms of motives. Four studies (N = 1,502) assessed participants' interest in information about seven fundamental social motives (self-protection, disease avoidance, affiliation, status, mate seeking, mate retention, kin care) across 12 experimental conditions that presented details about the person or situation. In the absence of details about specific situations, participants most highly prioritized learning about kin care and mate retention motives. There was some variability across conditions, but the kin care motive was consistently highly prioritized. Additional results from Studies 1 to 4 and Study 5 (N = 174) showed the most highly prioritized motives were perceived to be stable across time and to be especially diagnostic of a person's trustworthiness, warmth, competence, and dependability. Findings are discussed in relation to research on fundamental social motives and pragmatic perspectives on person perception.

Culture and narcissism: The roles of fundamental social motives

• We examine how cultural values relate to narcissism via social motives. • Vertical individualism exhibits a positive indirect effect on narcissism. • Horizontal collectivism shows a negative indirect effect on antagonistic narcissism. • A strong status motive underpins both agentic and antagonistic narcissism. • A weak affiliation motive is associated with antagonistic narcissism. Cultures that value individuality over collective cohesion tend to report higher levels of narcissism. One plausible explanation is that individuals with vertical individualistic orientations might find it easier to justify motivations to procure individual status and success, which may reinforce narcissistic tendencies. We tested this idea with samples of university students ( N 1 = 545) and working adults ( N 2 = 534). Specifically, we examined the degree to which cultural orientations related to grandiose narcissism through the fundamental social motives of status and affiliation. The indirect effects of vertical individualism on narcissism exhibited consistent patterns in both samples. As expected, vertical individualism related to higher levels of both agentic and antagonistic narcissism via a stronger status motive. The indirect effects of horizontal collectivism on narcissism were only observed for narcissistic rivalry. Specifically, horizontal collectivism related to lower levels of antagonistic narcissism via a stronger affiliation motive and a weaker status motive. Through documenting the interconnectedness of individuals’ cultural orientations, social motives, and narcissism, our findings demonstrate the central role of the status motive for narcissism.

Who cyberstalked their sexual and romantic partners? Sex differences, dark personality traits, and fundamental social motives

Who cyberstalked their sexual and romantic partners? Sex differences, dark personality traits, and fundamental social motives

How strong is the association between social media use and false consensus?

In series of studies, we sought to assess the extent to which social media use was related to the false consensus effect. Study 1 (N = 493) and Study 2 (N = 364, preregistered) assessed the relationship between social media use and the false consensus effect for three psychological characteristics: political attitudes, personality traits, and fundamental social motives. Study 3 (N = 875) explored lay beliefs about the strength of the relationships between social media use and false consensus effects. Across studies, we found that heavier use of social media was associated with stronger false consensus effects. However, these effects were smaller in magnitude than lay beliefs about these linkages.

Competing motives in a pandemic: Interplays between fundamental social motives and technology use in predicting (Non)Compliance with social distancing guidelines

During the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals were advised to adhere to social distancing guidelines limiting physical interpersonal contact. Humans have a suite of adaptations to satisfy belonging needs while avoiding diseased conspecifics. Competition between motivational systems may explain adherence and resistance to social distancing guidelines and how technologically mediated interactions further shape these decisions. This study is a preregistered analysis of data in a representative sample collected during the pandemic investigating how individual differences in affiliative and pathogen-avoidant motives predict interest in physical interactions (N = 2409). Germ aversion predicted disinterest in physical interactions and need to belong predicted interest. Additional analyses revealed technology use satisfied belonging motives that unexpectedly heightened interest in physical contact. Exploratory analyses further indicate that internet speed was similarly associated with greater interest in physical interactions. We frame these results through a competing fundamental social motives framework and discuss how to address future pandemics effectively.

Correlations of Fundamental Social Motives with Personality Measures and Life History Variables

Background: In response to the replication crisis in the field of psychology, the authors conduct a replication of the Neel et al. (2016) (1) study examining individual differences in fundamental social motives. Methods: Using the Fundamental Social Motives Inventory, we explore the relationships of the fundamental social motives to other individual differences and personality measures and the extent to which life history variables (e.g., age, sex, childhood environment) predict individual differences in the fundamental social motives. In addition to the replication study, the authors also incorporate the Behavioral Inhibition/Activation Scale (BIS/BAS) as a new variable to determine this measure of personality’s correlation with all seven fundamental social motives of Self-Protection, Disease Avoidance, Affiliation, Status, Mate Seeking, Mate Retention, and Kin Care. A total of 34 participants are recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk to complete the measures of personality under question. The replication criteria are set at ±0.15 r/β-units from the original study results and effect sizes greater than or equal to r/β=0.5 have to demonstrate statistical significance at the p<0.05 level.Results: Results demonstrate that between a third and a half of all effect sizes replicate Neel et al.’s (1) findings.Limitations: These results should be considered carefully with respect to the low sample size of our study.Conclusion: The BIS/BAS variable proves to be most informative, indicating that the seven motives cluster under either the BIS or BAS factors with medium to large strengths of correlation. These findings contribute to discussions on considering the most accurate measures of social motivation and the implications of individual differences in psychology’s understanding of such motivational systems.

Relations between self-esteem dimensions and fundamental social motives

The article presents the concept of fundamental social motives, which is novel for Polish readers, and its relations with self-esteem. The studies conducted so far suggest that there may be significant correlations between various dimensions of self-esteem and fundamental motives focused on interpersonal relations (affiliation motives and mate acquisition/retention motives). Data was collected from a sample of N = 363 subjects in order to find predictors for the level and stability of self-esteem. The results include correlations between 11 scales measuring fundamental motives and self-esteem dimensions: its level and instability. Multiple regression analyses with self-esteem measures as explained variables and motives related to sociometer theory as explanatory variables were also conducted. The article presents a detailed discussion of regression analysis results for male and female samples. Limitations and future research directions are also discussed.