biostudies-literaturePick CMGrantová Agentura České RepublikyAkademie Věd České RepublikyAkademie Věd České Republiky (Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic)Grantová Agentura České Republiky (Grant Agency of the Czech Republic)National Science Foundation Graduate Student Fellowship ProgramFundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (São Paulo Research Foundation)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São PauloNational Science Foundation (NSF)Universidad de La FronteraNational Science FoundationUniversidad de La Frontera (University of the Frontier)499https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC9380674biostudies-literatureUnknown9(1)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; M_age = 24.43, SD = 7.91). Wave 2 was collected from AprilScientific dataFundamental social motives measured across forty-two cultures in two waves.PMC93806742017/11748-7DIUFRO DI20-00802018/01347-818227136808174017-14387SSette COnyishi IEGalindo-Caballero OJKo AUz ISevincer ATMoran STalhelm TFetvadjiev VHCruz JEHrebickova MRizwan MNa JGomez-Jacinto LWiezel AKara-Yakoubian MHamamura TSuh EMKenrick DTJohnson JLKim JPFischer RWormley ASDavid DSamoylenko ESZambrano DGaldi SSznycer DUgwu FOChoy BKCFetvadjieva SMafra ALEspinosa AIlic DDefelipe RPO JVarella MACVarnum MEWHansson LSKohut MPasay-An EGraf SCeylan-Batur SDavid OARoth ELee HHan SMurata ASavchenko TNStanciu AGolovina EVGrossmann IFernandez AMGul PMalanchuk ONdiaye SALKarl JAHitokoto HWei LAl-Shawaf LValentova JVLasselin JPick CMElmas PUskul AKBarry OBoonyasiriwat WHalama PBereby-Meyer YCrispim ACGolovina GMBrandstatter ELi NPSalgado SAwad ESkoog EfalseFundamental 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; M_age = 24.43, SD = 7.91). Wave 2 was collected from April2022-01-01T00:00:00Z2022 Aug2025-04-26T19:48:47.788Z2024-11-14T03:43:15.941ZS-EPMC93806743597402110.1038/s41597-022-01579-w