Family still matters: Human social motivation across 42 countries during a global pandemic
Status PubMed-not-MEDLINE Language English Country United States Media print-electronic
Document type Journal Article
PubMed
36217369
PubMed Central
PMC9534541
DOI
10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2022.09.003
PII: S1090-5138(22)00062-9
Knihovny.cz E-resources
- Keywords
- COVID-19, Cross-cultural research, Family, Fundamental social motives, Life satisfaction,
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
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; M age = 24.43, SD = 7.91; mid-pandemic wave: 29 countries, N = 6917; 2249 male, 4218 female; M age = 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.
Aberystwyth University United Kingdom
Adnan Menderes University Turkey
Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu Alike Nigeria
Arizona State University Tempe AZ United States of America
Babeş Bolyai University Romania
Ben Gurion University of the Negev Israel
Chulalongkorn University Thailand
Czech Academy of Sciences Czech Republic
Fundación Universitaria Konrad Lorenz Colombia
Gesis Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences Germany
Institute of Psychology Russian Academy of Science Moscow Russia
Instituto D'Or de Pesquisa e Ensino Brazil
Johannes Kepler University Linz Austria
Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset Sweden
Kwansei Gakuin University Japan
North West University South Africa
Pontificia Universidad Católica del Peru Peru
Purdue University West Lafayette IN United States of America
Singapore Management University Singapore
Slovak Academy of Sciences Slovakia
TOBB University of Economics and Technology Turkey
Toronto Metropolitan University Canada
Universidad Católica Boliviana Bolivia
Universidad de La Frontera Chile
Universidad de los Andes Colombia
Universidad Manuela Beltran Colombia
University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar Senegal
University of Amsterdam Netherlands
University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli Italy
University of Chicago Chicago IL United States of America
University of Colorado Colorado Springs CO United States of America
University of Groningen Netherlands
University of Hail Saudi Arabia
University of Haripur Pakistan
University of Kent United Kingdom
University of Michigan Ann Arbor MI United States of America
University of Nigeria Nsukka Nigeria
University of São Paulo Brazil
See more in PubMed
Bates A.E., Primack R.B., Moraga P., Duarte C.M. COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdown as a “global human confinement experiment” to investigate biodiversity conservation. Biological Conservation. 2020;248 doi: 10.1016/j.biocon.2020.108665. PubMed DOI PMC
Casanova J.L., Abel L. Inborn errors of immunity to infection: The rule rather than the exception. The Journal of Experimental Medicine. 2005;202(2):197–201. doi: 10.1084/jem.20050854. PubMed DOI PMC
Connor P. Pew Research Center; 2020. More than nine-in-ten people worldwide live in countries with travel restrictions amid COVID-19.https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/04/01/more-than-nine-in-ten-people-worldwide-live-in-countries-with-travel-restrictions-amid-covid-19/
Daly M., Salmon C., Wilson M. In: Evolutionary social psychology. Simpson J.A., Kenrick D.T., editors. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.; 1997. Kinship: The conceptual hole in psychological studies of social cognition and close relationships; pp. 265–296.
Deschamps M., Laval G., Fagny M., Itan Y., Abel L., Casanova J.L.…Quintana-Murci L. Genomic signatures of selective pressures and introgression from archaic hominins at human innate immunity genes. The American Journal of Human Genetics. 2016;98(1):5–21. doi: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2015.11.014. PubMed DOI PMC
Diener E.D., Emmons R.A., Larsen R.J., Griffin S. The satisfaction with life scale. Journal of Personality Assessment. 1985;49(1):71–75. doi: 10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13. PubMed DOI
Evans S., Mikocka-Walus A., Klas A., Olive L., Sciberras E., Karantzas G., Westrupp E.M. From “it has stopped our lives” to “spending more time together has strengthened bonds”: The varied experiences of Australian families during COVID-19. Frontiers in Psychology. 2020;11 doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.588667. PubMed DOI PMC
Fumagalli M., Sironi M., Pozzoli U., Ferrer-Admettla A., Pattini L., Nielsen R. Signatures of environmental genetic adaptation pinpoint pathogens as the main selective pressure through human evolution. PLoS Genetics. 2011;7(11) doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1002355. PubMed DOI PMC
Goldfinch S., Taplin R., Gauld R. Trust in government increased during the Covid-19 pandemic in Australia and New Zealand. Australian Journal of Public Administration. 2021;80(1):3–11. doi: 10.1111/1467-8500.12459. DOI
Han Q., Zheng B., Cristea M., Agostini M., Bélanger J.J., Gützkow B., PsyCorona Collaboration Trust in government regarding COVID-19 and its associations with preventive health behaviour and prosocial behaviour during the pandemic: A cross-sectional and longitudinal study. Psychological Medicine. 2021;1-11 doi: 10.1017/S0033291721001306. PubMed DOI PMC
Hewlett B.S., Van De Koppel J.M.H., Van De Koppel M. In: African pygmies. Cavalli-Sforza L.L., editor. Academic Press; 1986. Causes of death among Aka pygmies of the Central African Republic; pp. 45–63.
Hill K., Hurtado A.M., Walker R.S. High adult mortality among Hiwi hunter-gatherers: Implications for human evolution. Journal of Human Evolution. 2007;52(4):443–454. doi: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2006.11.003. PubMed DOI
Hill K.R., Walker R.S., Božičević M., Eder J., Headland T., Hewlett B.…Wood B. Co-residence patterns in hunter-gatherer societies show unique human social structure. Science. 2011;331(6022):1286–1289. doi: 10.1126/science.1199071. PubMed DOI
Hrdy S.B. In: Family relationships: An evolutionary perspective. Salmon C.A., Shackleford T.K., editors. Oxford University Press; 2007. Evolutionary context of human development: The cooperative breeding model; pp. 39–68. DOI
Jones D.S., Podolsky S.H., Greene J.A. The burden of disease and the changing task of medicine. New England Journal of Medicine. 2012;366(25):2333–2338. doi: 10.1056/NEJMp1113569. PubMed DOI
Kenrick D.T., Griskevicius V., Neuberg S.L., Schaller M. Renovating the pyramid of needs: Contemporary extensions built upon ancient foundations. Perspectives on Psychological Science. 2010;5(3):292–314. doi: 10.1177/1745691610369469. PubMed DOI PMC
Ko A., Pick C.M., Kwon J.Y., Barlev M., Krems J.A., Varnum M.E.W.…Kenrick D.T. Family matters: Rethinking the psychology of human social motivation. Perspectives on Psychological Science. 2020;15(1):173–201. doi: 10.1177/1745691619872986. PubMed DOI
Kramer S. Pew Research Center; 2020. More Americans say they are regularly wearing masks in stores and other businesses.https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/08/27/more-americans-say-they-are-regularly-wearing-masks-in-stores-and-other-businesses/
Krems J.A., Kenrick D.T., Neel R. Individual perceptions of self-actualization: What functional motives are linked to fulfilling one’s full potential? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 2017;43(9):1337–1352. doi: 10.1177/0146167217713191. PubMed DOI
Le Quéré C., Jackson R.B., Jones M.W., Smith A.J., Abernethy S., Andrew R.M.…Peters G.P. Temporary reduction in daily global CO 2 emissions during the COVID-19 forced confinement. Nature Climate Change. 2020;10(7):647–653. doi: 10.1038/s41558-020-0797-x. DOI
McElreath K. Nearly 93% of households with school-age children report some form of distance learning during COVID-19. United States Census Bureau. 2020 https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2020/08/schooling-during-the-covid-19-pandemic.html
Murray D.R., Schaller M. Historical prevalence of infectious diseases within 230 geopolitical regions: A tool for investigating origins of culture. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. 2010;41:99–108. doi: 10.1177/0022022109349510. DOI
Neel R., Kenrick D.T., White A.E., Neuberg S.L. Individual differences in fundamental social motives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2016;110(6):887–907. doi: 10.1037/pspp0000068. PubMed DOI
Nielsen J.H., Lindvall J. Trust in government in Sweden and Denmark during the COVID-19 epidemic. West European Politics. 2021;44(5–6):1180–1204. doi: 10.1080/01402382.2021.1909964. DOI
OECD . 2018. “Trust in government” (indicator) DOI
OECD . OECD Publishing; Paris: 2021. Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions in Finland. DOI
OECD . OECD Publishing; Paris: 2022. Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions in Norway. DOI
Parker K., Menasce Horowitz J., Minkin R. Pew Research Center; 2020. How the coronavirus outbreak has – and hasn’t – changed the way Americans work.https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/12/09/how-the-coronavirus-outbreak-has-and-hasnt-changed-the-way-americans-work/
Parker K., Minkin R., Bennett J. Pew Research Center; 2020. Economic fallout from COVID-19 continues to hit lower-income Americans the hardest.https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/09/24/economic-fallout-from-covid-19-continues-to-hit-lower-income-americans-the-hardest/
Pick C.M., Ko A., Kenrick D.T., Wiezel A., Wormley A.S., Awad E.…Varnum M.E.W. Fundamental social motives measured across forty-two cultures in two waves. Scientific Data. 2022;9:499. doi: 10.1038/s41597-022-01579-w. PubMed DOI PMC
Pick C.M., Ko A., Wiezel A., Wormley A.S., Kenrick D., Al-Shawaf L.…Varnum M.E.W. Fundamental social motives around the world. Open Science Framework. 2022 doi: 10.17605/OSF.IO/P9Z2A. DOI
Power K. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the care burden of women and families. Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy. 2020;16(1):67–73. doi: 10.1080/15487733.2020.1776561. DOI
R Core Team foreign: Read Data Stored by ‘Minitab’, ‘S', ‘SAS', ‘SPSS', ‘Stata’, ‘Weka’, ‘dBase’, …. R package version 0.8–80. 2020. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=foreign
Saad L. Gallup; 2020. Americans still social distancing, but less vigilant.https://news.gallup.com/poll/309611/americans-social-distancing-less-vigilant.aspx
Sohrabi C., Alsafi Z., O'Neill N., Khan M., Kerwan A., Al-Jabir A.…Agha R. World Health Organization declares global emergency: A review of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) International Journal of Surgery. 2020;76:71–76. doi: 10.1016/j.ijsu.2020.02.034. PubMed DOI PMC
The World Bank GDP per capita (current US$) The World Bank. 2020 https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD
Trent M., Seale H., Chughtai A.A., Salmon D., MacIntyre C.R. Trust in government, intention to vaccinate and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy: A comparative survey of five large cities in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. Vaccine. 2022;40(17):2498–2505. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2021.06.048. PubMed DOI PMC
UNICEF . UNICEF; 2021. COVID-19: Schools for more than 168 million children globally have been completely closed for almost a full year, says UNICEF.https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/schools-more-168-million-children-globally-have-been-completely-closed
Wei T., Simko V. R package ‘corrplot’: Visualization of a Correlation Matrix (Version 0.92) 2021. https://github.com/taiyun/corrplot
White H. Academic Press; San Diego, CA: 1984. Asymptotic theory for econometricians.
Wickham H. Springer-Verlag; New York: 2016. ggplot2: Elegant graphics for data analysis.https://ggplot2.tidyverse.org
Wickham H., Bryan J. readxl: Read Excel Files. R package version 1.3.1. 2019. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=readxl