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.

Behavioral Science University of Chicago Chicago IL 60637 USA

Center of Social and Psychological Sciences Slovak Academy of Sciences 841 04 Bratislava Slovakia

College of Nursing University of Hail Hail 55476 Saudi Arabia

Department of Bulgarian Language Sofia University Sofia Bulgaria

Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy Babeş Bolyai University Cluj Napoca 400347 Romania

Department of Community Sustainability Michigan State University East Lansing MI 48824 USA

Department of Economic Psychology Johannes Kepler University Linz 4040 Linz Austria

Department of Economics University of Exeter Business School Exeter EX4 4PU England UK

Department of Education Hubei University Wuhan Hubei 430061 China

Department of Experimental Psychology Institute of Psychology University of São Paulo São Paulo 05508 030 Brazil

Department of Management and Economics Universidad de La Frontera Temuco Araucanía Chile

Department of Management Ben Gurion University of the Negev Beer Sheva 84105 Israel

Department of Monitoring Society and Social Change Gesis Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences 68072 Mannheim Germany

Department of Peace and Conflict Research Uppsala University 753 20 Uppsala Sweden

Department of Psychology Aberystwyth University Aberystwyth SY23 3UX Wales UK

Department of Psychology Adnan Menderes University 09010 Aydın Turkey

Department of Psychology Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu Alike Ebonyi State Nigeria

Department of Psychology Arizona State University Tempe AZ 85287 USA

Department of Psychology Ben Gurion University of the Negev Beer Sheva 84105 Israel

Department of Psychology Faculty of Philosophy University of Niš Niš 18000 Serbia

Department of Psychology Fundación Universitaria Konrad Lorenz Bogotá Colombia

Department of Psychology Oklahoma State University Stillwater OK 74078 USA

Department of Psychology Sogang University Seoul 04107 South Korea

Department of Psychology TOBB University of Economics and Technology 06510 Ankara Turkey

Department of Psychology Toronto Metropolitan University Toronto Ontario M5B 2K3 Canada

Department of Psychology Universidad de los Andes Bogotá Cundinamarca Colombia

Department of Psychology University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar Dakar 10700 Senegal

Department of Psychology University of Amsterdam 1018 WS Amsterdam Netherlands

Department of Psychology University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli 81100 Caserta Italy

Department of Psychology University of Colorado Colorado Springs CO 80309 USA

Department of Psychology University of Hamburg 20146 Hamburg Germany

Department of Psychology University of Haripur Haripur 22620 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan

Department of Psychology University of Nigeria Nsukka Nigeria

Department of Psychology University of Waterloo Waterloo Ontario N2L 3G1 Canada

Department of Psychology Yonsei University Seoul 03722 South Korea

Department of Social Psychology Social Work and Social Anthropology University of Málaga 29016 Málaga Spain

Department of Sociology University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar Dakar 10700 Senegal

Department of Sustainable Health University of Groningen 8911CE Leeuwarden Netherlands

Division of Psychology Department of Clinical Neuroscience Karolinska Institutet 171 77 Solna Sweden

eduLab21 Ayrton Senna Institute São Paulo 05423 040 Brazil

Experimental Research Unit Department of Psychology Universidad Católica Boliviana La Paz Bolivia

Faculty of Education Human and Social Sciences Universidad Manuela Beltran Bogotá Colombia

Faculty of Philosophy and Arts University of Trnava 917 01 Trnava Slovakia

Faculty of Psychology Chulalongkorn University Bangkok 10330 Thailand

Graduate School of Letters Hokkaido University Sapporo Hokkaido 060 0810 Japan

Grupo de Psicología Política y Social Departamento de Psicología Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú San Miguel 15088 Lima Peru

Institute for Social Research University of Michigan Ann Arbor MI 48104 USA

Institute of Psychology Czech Academy of Sciences 110 00 Nové Město Prague Czechia

Institute of Psychology Russian Academy of Science Moscow 129366 Russia

Instituto D'Or de Pesquisa e Ensino Rio de Janeiro 22281 100 Brazil

Office of the Chief Scientist Environmental Defense Fund New York NY 10010 USA

Osher Center for Integrative Medicine ME Neuroradiologi Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset 171 77 Solna Sweden

School and Graduate School of Humanities Kwansei Gakuin University Nishinomiya Hyogo 662 8501 Japan

School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences Peking University Beijing 100871 China

School of Psychology Curtin University Bentley WA 6102 Perth Australia

School of Psychology Dublin City University Dublin 9 Ireland

School of Psychology University of Kent Canterbury CT2 7NP UK

School of Psychology University of Santiago Santiago Estación Central Región Metropolitana Chile

School of Psychology Victoria University of Wellington Wellington 6012 New Zealand

School of Social Sciences Singapore Management University Singapore 188065 Singapore

Stress Research Institute Department of Psychology Stockholm University 106 91 Stockholm Sweden

WorkWell Research Unit North West University Potchefstroom 2520 South Africa

Erratum v

Sci Data. 2022 Sep 20;9(1):575. doi: 10.1038/s41597-022-01672-0. PubMed

Zobrazit více v PubMed

Barrett HC. Towards a cognitive science of the human: cross-cultural approaches and their urgency. Trends Cogn. Sci. 2020;24:620–638. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2020.05.007. PubMed DOI

Henrich J, Heine SJ, Norenzayan A. The weirdest people in the world? Behav. Brain Sci. 2010;33:61–83. doi: 10.1017/S0140525X0999152X. PubMed DOI

Rad MS, Martingano AJ, Ginges J. Toward a psychology of Homo sapiens: making psychological science more representative of the human population. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 2018;115:11401–11405. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1721165115. PubMed DOI PMC

Daly M, Wilson M. Evolutionary social psychology and family homicide. Science. 1988;242:519–524. doi: 10.1126/science.3175672. PubMed DOI

Tooby J, Cosmides L. Evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture, part I: theoretical considerations. Ethol. Sociobiol. 1989;10:29–49. doi: 10.1016/0162-3095(89)90012-5. DOI

Kenrick DT, Keefe RC. Age preferences in mates reflect sex differences in mating strategies. Behav. Brain Sci. 1992;15:75–91. doi: 10.1017/S0140525X00067595. DOI

Schmitt DP. Sociosexuality from Argentina to Zimbabwe: a 48-nation study of sex, culture, and strategies of human mating. Behav. Brain Sci. 2005;28:247–275. doi: 10.1017/S0140525X05000051. PubMed DOI

Schmitt DP, et al. Narcissism and the strategic pursuit of short-term mating: universal links across 11 world regions of the International Sexuality Description Project-2. Psihologijske Teme. 2017;26:89–137. doi: 10.31820/pt.26.1.5. DOI

Fiske, A. P., Kitayama, S., Markus, H. R. & Nisbett, R. E. The cultural matrix of social psychology. In The Handbook of Social Psychology (eds. Gilbert, D. T., Fiske, S. T. & Lindzey G.) 915–981 (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1998).

Sorokowska, A. et al. Affective interpersonal touch in close relationships: a cross-cultural perspective. Pers. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 1705–1721 (2021). PubMed

Walter KV, et al. Sex differences in mate preferences across 45 countries: a large-scale replication. Psychol. Sci. 2020;31:408–423. doi: 10.1177/0956797620904154. PubMed DOI

Norenzayan A, Heine SJ. Psychological universals: what are they and how can we know? Psychol. Bull. 2005;131:763–784. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.131.5.763. PubMed DOI

Janicki, M. & Krebs, D.L. Evolutionary approaches to culture. In Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology: Ideas, Issues, and Applications (eds. Crawford, C. B. & Krebs, D. L.) 163-208 (Mahwah, NJ: LEA, 1998).

Neel R, Kenrick DT, White AE, Neuberg SL. Individual differences in fundamental social motives. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 2016;110:887–907. doi: 10.1037/pspp0000068. PubMed DOI

Kenrick DT, Griskevicius V, Neuberg SL, Schaller M. Renovating the pyramid of needs: contemporary extensions built upon ancient foundations. Perspect. Psychol. Sci. 2010;5:292–314. doi: 10.1177/1745691610369469. PubMed DOI PMC

Kenrick DT, Li NP, Butner J. Dynamical evolutionary psychology: individual decision-rules and emergent social norms. Psychol. Rev. 2003;110:3–28. doi: 10.1037/0033-295X.110.1.3. PubMed DOI

Becker DV, et al. More memory bang for the attentional buck: self-protection goals enhance encoding efficiency for potentially threatening males. Soc. Psychol. Personal. Sci. 2010;1:182–189. doi: 10.1177/1948550609359202. PubMed DOI PMC

Maner JK, Gailliot MT, Rouby DA, Miller SL. Can’t take my eyes off you: attentional adhesion to mates and rivals. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 2007;93:389–401. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.93.3.389. PubMed DOI

Maner JK, et al. Functional projection: how fundamental social motives can bias interpersonal perception. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 2005;88:63–78. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.88.1.63. PubMed DOI

Griskevicius V, Goldstein NJ, Mortensen CR, Cialdini RB, Kenrick DT. Going along versus going alone: when fundamental motives facilitate strategic (non)conformity. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 2006;91:281–294. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.91.2.281. PubMed DOI

Li YJ, Kenrick DT, Griskevicius V, Neuberg SL. Economic decision biases and fundamental motivations: how mating and self-protection alter loss aversion. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 2012;102:550–561. doi: 10.1037/a0025844. PubMed DOI

Sundie JM, et al. Peacocks, Porsches, and Thorstein Veblen: conspicuous consumption as a sexual signaling system. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 2011;100:664–680. doi: 10.1037/a0021669. PubMed DOI

Griskevicius V, et al. Aggress to impress: hostility as an evolved context-dependent strategy. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 2009;96:980–994. doi: 10.1037/a0013907. PubMed DOI

Griskevicius V, et al. Fear and loving in Las Vegas: evolution, emotion, and persuasion. J. Mark. Res. 2009;46:384–395. doi: 10.1509/jmkr.46.3.384. PubMed DOI PMC

Becker DV, et al. Signal detection on the battlefield: priming self-protection vs. revenge-mindedness differentially modulates the detection of enemies and allies. PLoS One. 2011;6:e23929. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0023929. PubMed DOI PMC

Schaller M. The parental care motivational system and why it matters (for everyone) Curr. Dir. Psychol. Sci. 2018;27:295–30. doi: 10.1177/0963721418767873. DOI

Krems JA, Kenrick DT, Neel R. Individual perceptions of self-actualization: what functional motives are linked to fulfilling one’s full potential? Pers. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 2017;43:1337–1352. doi: 10.1177/0146167217713191. PubMed DOI

Diener E, Emmons RA, Larsen RJ, Griffin S. The satisfaction with life scale. J. Pers. Assess. 1985;49:71–75. doi: 10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13. PubMed DOI

Adler NE, Epel ES, Castellazzo G, Ickovics JR. Relationship of subjective and objective social status with psychological and physiological functioning: preliminary data in healthy, White women. Health Psychol. 2000;19:586–592. doi: 10.1037/0278-6133.19.6.586. PubMed DOI

Pick CM, 2022. Fundamental social motives around the world. Open Science Framework. DOI

Ko A, et al. Family matters: rethinking the psychology of human social motivation. Pers. Psychol. Sci. 2020;15:173–201. doi: 10.1177/1745691619872986. PubMed DOI

Pick, C. M. et al. Family still matters: human social motivation during a global pandemic. Preprint at 10.31234/osf.io/z7mjc (2022). PubMed PMC

Virtanen P, et al. SciPy 1.0: fundamental algorithms for scientific computing in Python. Nat. Methods. 2020;17:261–272. doi: 10.1038/s41592-019-0686-2. PubMed DOI PMC

Müllner, D. Modern hierarchical, agglomerative clustering algorithms. Preprint at 10.48550/arXiv.1109.2378 (2011).

Ward JH., Jr. Hierarchical grouping to optimize an objective function. J. Am. Stat. Assoc. 1963;58:236–244. doi: 10.1080/01621459.1963.10500845. DOI

Acsádi, G., Nemeskéri, J. & Balás, K. History of Human Life Span and Mortality (trans. Balás, K.) 113–135 (Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1970).

Gurven M, Kaplan H. Longevity among hunter‐gatherers: a cross‐cultural examination. Popul. Dev. Rev. 2007;33:321–365. doi: 10.1111/j.1728-4457.2007.00171.x. DOI

Wang ET, Kodama G, Baldi P, Moyzis RK. Global landscape of recent inferred Darwinian selection for Homo sapiens. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 2006;103:135–140. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0509691102. PubMed DOI PMC

Gurven M, Allen-Arave W, Hill K, Hurtado AM. Reservation food sharing among the Ache of Paraguay. Hum. Nat. 2001;12:273–297. doi: 10.1007/s12110-001-1000-3. PubMed DOI

Von Rueden C, Gurven M, Kaplan H. Why do men seek status? Fitness payoffs to dominance and prestige. Proc. Royal Soc. B. 2011;278:2223–2232. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2010.2145. PubMed DOI PMC

Geary DC. Evolution and proximate expression of human paternal investment. Psychol. Bull. 2000;126:55–77. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.126.1.55. PubMed DOI

Kaplan H, Hill K, Lancaster J, Hurtado AM. A theory of human life history evolution: diet, intelligence, and longevity. Evol. Anthropol. 2000;9:156–185. doi: 10.1002/1520-6505(2000)9:4<156::AID-EVAN5>3.0.CO;2-7. DOI

Burnstein E, Crandall C, Kitayama S. Some neo-Darwinian decision rules for altruism: weighing cues for inclusive fitness as a function of the biological importance of the decision. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 1994;67:773–789. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.67.5.773. DOI

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