Many have pondered whether happiness is chiefly made of positive feelings and joy (hedonism) or by acquiring meaning via self-actualization (eudaimonism). Drawing on life history theory, we examined if individuals’ early-life experience (i.e., childhood socioeconomic status; SES) colors their notions of well-being. A consistent pattern was found in two studies (Study 1, N = 183; Study 2, N = 168) using MTurk samples; wealthier childhood upbringing predicted stronger endorsement of eudaimonic happiness. This pattern, supporting claims of life history theory, emerged only when perceptions of (economic) instability was salient (chronic, Study 1; experimentally primed, Study 2). Also, only childhood SES, but not current SES, mattered. This research finds novel evidence that childhood experience and current threat perception may interact to shape people’s ideals of happiness.

Extraversion is one of the most powerful predictors of happiness. From an evolutionary perspective, however, it is unlikely that a personality trait is unconditionally beneficial. The present research examined whether extraversion's ‘happiness advantage’ diminishes in the presence of pathogen threat, a context in which extraverted behaviors could bring more harm (i.e., infection) than good. Two studies found that pathogen threat can attenuate the relationship between extraversion and experiences of positive affect (PA). In Study 1, the extraversion-PA link was weaker but still significant among participants with stronger motive to avoid infectious diseases. In Study 2, the extraversion-PA link became non-significant when pathogen threat was experimentally cued. Moreover, this effect was specific to the threat of pathogens, but not others (i.e., physical violence). The present findings shed light on boundary conditions where extraversion may not always translate to greater happiness.

There is a growing body of work suggesting that social class stereotypes are amplified when people perceive higher levels of economic inequality-that is, the wealthy are perceived as more competent and assertive and the poor as more incompetent and unassertive. The present study tested this prediction in 32 societies and also examines the role of wealth-based categorization in explaining this relationship. We found that people who perceived higher economic inequality were indeed more likely to consider wealth as a meaningful basis for categorization. Unexpectedly, however, higher levels of perceived inequality were associated with perceiving the wealthy as less competent and assertive and the poor as more competent and assertive. Unpacking this further, exploratory analyses showed that the observed tendency to stereotype the wealthy negatively only emerged in societies with lower social mobility and democracy and higher corruption. This points to the importance of understanding how socio-structural features that co-occur with economic inequality may shape perceptions of the wealthy and the poor.

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.

Although the need for social connection is fundamental, people approach this need through different strategies. Drawing from life history theory, the current research explored whether individuals' early-life experiences are associated with narrow/deep (depth), or broad/shallow (breadth) approach to social relationships. Three studies revealed that participants' childhood socioeconomic status (SES) interacts with perception of economic instability to create diverging preferences in social relationship pattern. Specifically, when economic instability was salient (chronic belief, Study 1; experimentally primed, Studies 2 and 3), individuals from lower-SES childhood preferred a narrower and deeper social network, whereas those from higher-SES childhood preferred a broader and shallower network. Taken together, the present research offers a novel understanding of depth- versus breadth-focused approach to social relationships from the perspective of life history theory.