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

Curtin University Australia

Czech Academy of Sciences Czech Republic

Fundación Universitaria Konrad Lorenz Colombia

Gesis Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences Germany

Hokkaido University Japan

Institute of Psychology Russian Academy of Science Moscow Russia

Instituto D'Or de Pesquisa e Ensino Brazil

Johannes Kepler University Linz Austria

Karolinska Institutet Sweden

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

Sofia University Bulgaria

Stockholm University Sweden

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 Hamburg Germany

University of Haripur Pakistan

University of Kent United Kingdom

University of Malaga Spain

University of Michigan Ann Arbor MI United States of America

University of Montreal Canada

University of Nigeria Nsukka Nigeria

University of Nis Serbia

University of Santiago Chile

University of São Paulo Brazil

University of Trnava Slovakia

University of Waterloo Canada

Uppsala University Sweden

Victoria University of Wellington New Zealand

Yonsei University South Korea

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