Chapter 1 - The Deep Roots of Our Need for Social Connection

Question 1

1- Are our most intense emotional experiences more interpersonal or independent?

Answer 1

JAREMKA, GABRIEL, & CARVALLO, 2010
* Our most intense emotional experiences tend to be centered on
interpersonal (relationship-focused) rather than independent (self-focused)
events
* 3.59/5 participants listed the most negative and positive emotional events in
their lives as interdependent
* General finding holds across different age groups, time periods (e.g., month
vs. lifetime), and is true of both men and women
* Interdependent events also rated as having a stronger, longer-lasting
emotional impact

BUT, WHAT’S MORE…
* Even seemingly self-oriented, independent events (e.g., achievementoriented stresses or successes) may not be truly “independent”
* More on that in Week 4

Question 2

2- Why do interdependent events affect us so strongly?

Answer 2

THE NEED TO
BELONG
(BAUMEISTER &
LEARY, 1995)
* Human beings have a
fundamental need to form
and maintain at least a
minimum quantity of
lasting, positive, and
significant interpersonal
relationships

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
* To call something a ”fundamental need” is a pretty bold claim
* Fundamental = essential, indispensable, integral, intrinsic
– Something that would have to come “programmed” in
* Suggests an evolutionary perspective

Question 3

3- What is Darwin’s theory of natural selection (a refresher)?

Answer 3

• Natural selection = process through which certain traits become more or less
  common in a population over time
• Natural selection is a combination of 3 components:
  1. Variation
  -Within a population of organisms, there is variation in traits or characteristics (eye colour, wing colour…)
  2. Heredity
  -Some of this variation is
  passed down from
  parents to offspring
  – We now know this
  happens through
  genetic inheritance
  3. Differential fitness
• Not all individuals in a population survive and reproduce equally
• Adaptations = favourable traits better suited to the environment that increase chances of survival & reproduction
• These favourable traits gradually accumulate over generations

TWO TYPES OF
SELECTION
* Survival selection: some adaptations
increase odds of survival
* Sexual selection: some adaptations
increase odds of securing a mate and
reproducing
– Intrasexual selection: driven by
competition among individuals of same
sex
– Intersexual selection: driven by mate
choice (more on that in a couple of weeks!)

• Inclusive fitness = success in passing on one’s genes to the next generation
  – Comprises both individual survival & reproduction AND
  – Impact on the survival & reproduction of genetic relatives
• Selection happens at the level of the gene, not the individual

Question 4

4- CAN A DESIRE FOR SOCIAL CONNECTION BE CONSIDERED AN ADAPTATION?

Answer 4

• Humans are not very impressive, physically speaking
• Environment of evolutionary adaptedness: the ancestral environment to which a species is adapted
• Throughout our evolutionary history, group living served as multi-purpose survival tool
  – Help hunting large game & foraging
  – Sharing food
  – Defensive vigilance and greater strength against predators and hostile outgroups
  – Help caring for offspring
  – Access to mates

(in their own paintings.. together=good, alone=bad)

Babies & the Shanidar I skeleton of Homo neanderthalensis:
Two testaments to the life-sustaining benefits of belonging
Babies= 100% dependent on others for survival
Shanidar I: Healed injuries thanks to others’ help

BAUMEISTER & LEARY, 1995
* Those who were more motivated to
belong would be more likely to
survive, passing on those belonging-inclined genes
– We’ll discuss some candidate
genes in week 10

Question 5

5- Supporting evidence for universality

Answer 5

• Should see evidence of universality
  – People in every society on earth naturally gravitate towards small primary
  groups (Coon, 1947; Mann, 1980)
  – People become attached even to meaningless groups (Tajfel’s minimal
  group paradigm)
  – People around the world experience profound distress when their
  relationships are threatened or lost (Hazan & Shorer, 1994, Reiss, 1986)
• Not just cross-cultural evidence,
  but cross-species evidence as well
  – Research on baboon BFFS:
• Female baboons with
  stronger & more stable social
  bonds live longer (Silk et al.,
  2010)
• Also have better chances of
  their offspring surviving (Silk
  et al., 2009)
• One perspective on emotion argues that we share the same basic emotional
  brain circuitry with other animals (Panksepp, 1998)
• But subject to myriad cognitive elaborations unique to humans
• Next week: we don’t have social experiences, we actively construct social
  experiences
• This leaves room for cross-cultural and individual differences deriving from
  experience

Question 6

6- SO, IS THE NEED FOR BELONGING
REALLY A NEED?

Answer 6

• Universal
  – All around the world, social bonds:
  – Are easy to form
  – Hard to break
• Reluctant to admit that even
  relatively meaningless
  relationships will end
• Many people experience difficulty
  ending even toxic relationships
• We suffer when relationships end or when we lack relationships
  – Lack of social network is a strong predictor of illness & mortality

Question 7

7- Recap

Answer 7

• Humans have a fundamental need to form and maintain stable, positive social
  bonds
• This need may be innate, selected for in the course of evolution because it
  was adaptive
• May be driven by basic emotional-motivational brain circuits shared with
  other social animals (at least according to some theories of emotion)
• But cognition also plays an important role in navigating social interactions
• For humans, very often, a sigh is not just a sigh (sorry, Dooley Wilson!)
  (Bradbury & Karney, 2019)