biostudies-literatureUnknown43(6)Pick CMThe 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 (<i>N</i> = 15,915) across two waves, including 19 countries (<i>N</i> <i>=</i> 10,907) for which data were gathered both before and during the pandemic (pre-pandemic wave: 32 countries, <i>N</i> = 8998; 3302 male, 5585 female; <i>M</i> _<i>age</i>  <i>=</i> 24.43, <i>SD</i> = 7.91; mid-pandemic wave: 29 countries, <i>N</i> = 6917; 224Evolution and human behavior : official journal of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society527-535https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC9534541biostudies-literatureFamily still matters: Human social motivation across 42 countries during a global pandemic.PMC9534541Onyishi IEGalindo-Caballero OJKo AUz ISevincer ATMoran STalhelm TFetvadjiev VHCruz JEHrebickova MRizwan MGomez-Jacinto LWiezel AKara-Yakoubian MHamamura TSuh EMKenrick DTJohnson JLFischer RWormley ASDavid DSamoylenko ESZambrano DGaldi SSznycer DUgwu FOFetvadjieva SMafra ALEspinosa AIlic DDefelipe RPO JVarella MACVarnum MEWHansson LSKohut MPasay-An EGraf SDavid OARoth EMurata ASavchenko TNStanciu AGrossmann IFernandez AMGul PMalanchuk ONdiaye SALKarl JAHitokoto HAl-Shawaf LValentova JVLasselin JPick CMElmas PUskul AKBarry OBoonyasiriwat WHalama PBereby-Meyer YCrispim ACGolovina GMBrandstatter ELi NPSalgado SSkoog EfalseFamily 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 (<i>N</i> = 15,915) across two waves, including 19 countries (<i>N</i> <i>=</i> 10,907) for which data were gathered both before and during the pandemic (pre-pandemic wave: 32 countries, <i>N</i> = 8998; 3302 male, 5585 female; <i>M</i> _<i>age</i>  <i>=</i> 24.43, <i>SD</i> = 7.91; mid-pandemic wave: 29 countries, <i>N</i> = 6917; 2242022-01-01T00:00:00Z2022 Nov2025-04-19T02:35:09.943Z2025-04-07T12:59:04.532ZS-EPMC95345413621736910.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2022.09.003