Some good news, and hopeful news, for a change. Regardless of country or culture, family matters most, to most people:
https://www.studyfinds.org/family-matters-regardless-of-country-or-culture-people-prioritize-loved-ones-over-all-else/
“From Seoul to Seattle, what matters most to people at the end of the day is their family and loved ones. That’s the uplifting finding of a new, extensive international study encompassing over 7,000 people from 27 different countries. The study, led by a team of social and evolutionary psychologists at Arizona State University, is especially interesting because family- and kin-based motivations are a topic that has been largely ignored by evolutionary psychologists for the past few decades. Instead, researchers have focused on how mate attraction and selection drives people’s behaviors. “People consistently rated kin care and mate retention as the most important motivations in their lives, and we found this over and over, in all 27 countries that participated,” comments first author Ahra Ko, an ASU psychology graduate student, in a media release. “The findings replicated in regions with collectivistic cultures, such as Korea and China, and in regions with individualistic cultures like Europe and the U.S.” All continents, except Antartica, were represented in the research. Just a few examples of participating countries include Australia, Bulgaria, Thailand, and Uganda. The research team at ASU sent out surveys to scientists in each country, intended to measure fundamental behavioral motivations. Then, once each local research team got their hands on the survey, they translated it into the native language, and made any necessary edits to ensure the questions were culturally appropriate for that specific country.
For the better part of 40 years, evolutionary psychology has emphasized how sexual behaviors, mate selection, and the search for new romantic partners drives people to act in certain ways. On a purely scientific level, this makes sense, sex and reproduction is ingrained in our DNA and undoubtedly influences behavior patterns. However, participants from all over the world in this study consistently rated this motivation, termed mate selection, as one of the least important factors influencing their motivations and behavior in life. Instead, kin care (taking care of family) and mate retention (maintaining a meaningful relationship with a significant other) were rated as much more important motivators for people all over the world. This held true even among younger people and those not currently in committed relationships, two demographics that researchers assumed would prioritize sex and mate attraction. “The focus on mate seeking in evolutionary psychology is understandable, given the importance of reproduction. Another reason for the overemphasis on initial attraction is that college students have historically been the majority of participants,” explains second author Cari Pick, an ASU psychology graduate student. “College students do appear to be relatively more interested in finding sexual and romantic partners than other groups of people.”
Even if all else crumbles, the preservation of the family unit yields hope for a rebuilding of civilisation, for the family is the building block of social order.