We conclude, then, that the present state of the empirical ev-idence is sufficient to confirm the belongingness hypothesis. Theneed to belong can be considered a fundamental humanmotivation

The need to belong also appears to conform to motivationalpatterns of satiation and substitution. People need a few closerelationships, and forming additional bonds beyond those fewhas less and less impact. Having two as opposed to no closerelationships may make a world of difference to the person'shealth and happiness; having eight as opposed to six may havevery little consequence. When a social bond is broken, peopleappear to recover best if they form a new one, although eachindividual life tends to involve some particularly special rela-tionships (such as filial or marital bonds) that are not easilyreplaced. People without intimate partners engage in a varietyof activities to find partners, but people who have partners al-ready are much less active at seeking additional relationships,consistent with the satiation hypothesis

Abundant evidence also attests that the need to belong shapesemotion and cognition. Forming or solidifying social attach-ments generally produces positive emotion, whereas real, imag-ined, or even potential threats to social bonds generate a varietyof unpleasant emotional states. In short, change in belong-ingness is a strong and pervasive cause of emotion in ways thatsupport the hypothesis of a need to belong. It is also evident thatpeople think a great deal about belongingness. They devote adisproportionate amount of cognitive processing to actual orpossible relationship partners and interaction partners, andthey reserve particular, more extensive, and more favorable pat-terns of information processing for people with whom theyshare social bonds.Deficits in belongingness apparently lead to a variety of illeffects, consistent with the view that belongingness is a need(as opposed to merely a want). Both psychological and physicalhealth problems are more common among people who lack so-cial attachments. Behavioral pathologies, ranging from eatingdisorders to suicide, are more common among people who areunattached. Although most of these findings are correlationaland many alternative explanations can be suggested, recentefforts have begun controlling for these other factors, and thepure, primary effects of belongingness appear to remain strong.It appears, then, that belongingness is not only pleasant but alsoapparently very beneficial to the individual in multiple wa

The effects of belongingness on mental illness parallel thoseon physical illness. Rejected children have a higher incidence ofpsychopathology than other children (Bhatti, Derezotes, Kim,& Specht, 1989; Hamachek, 1992). Children who grow upwithout receiving adequate attention from caregivers showemotional and behavioral pathologies, as demonstrated experi-mentally by Harlow, Harlow, and Suomi (1971) with animalsand as corroborated by observations of human children byBowlb

we propose that the need to belong can, in principle, be directedtoward any other human being, and the loss of relationship withone person can to some extent be replaced by any other. Themain obstacle to such substitution is that formation of new re-lationships takes time, such as in the gradual accumulation ofintimacy and shared experience (see Sternberg, 1986, on thetime course of intimacy). Social contact with a long-term inti-mate would therefore provide some satisfactions, including asense of belonging, that would not be available in interactionswith strangers or new acquaintances.

hildren who de-sired to stay together with adults (and who would resist beingleft alone) would be more likely to survive until their repro-ductive years than other children because they would be morelikely to receive care and food as well as protection. Cues thatconnote possible harm, such as illness, danger, nightfall, anddisaster, seem to increase the need to be with others (see alsoRofe, 1984), which again underscores the protective value ofgroup membership. Adults who formed attachments wouldbe more likely to reproduce than those who failed to formthem, and long-term relationships would increase thechances that the offspring would reach maturity and repro-duce in turn

At the interdisciplinary level, the belongingness hypothesismight help psychology recover from the challenge posed by cul-tural materialism. Cultural materialism (e.g., Harris, 1974,1978, 1979) is based on the assumption that human culture isshaped primarily by economic needs and opportunities, and sohistorical, anthropological, sociological, and other cultural pat-terns should mainly be analyzed with reference to economiccauses.

. The need to belong shouldtherefore be found to some degree in all humans in all cultures,although naturally one would expect there to be individualdifferences in strength and intensity, as well as cultural and in-dividual variations in how people express and satisfy the need.

we propose that a need to belong, that is, a needto form and maintain at least a minimum quantity of interper-sonal relationships, is innately prepared (and hence nearlyuniversal) among human beings.

In contrast, the belongingness hypothesiswould suggest that human culture is at least partly adapted toenable people to satisfy the psychological need to live together(along with economic needs, to be sure), thereby assigningsome fundamental causal power to psychological forces. Wesuggest that belongingness can be almost as compelling a needas food and that human culture is significantly conditioned bythe pressure to provide belongingness.

belongingness needs do not emergeuntil food, hunger, safety, and other basic needs are satisfied, butthey take precedence over esteem and self-actualization.

Interac-tions with a constantly changing sequence of partners will beless satisfactory than repeated interactions with the sameperson (s), and relatedness without frequent contact will also beunsatisfactory.

the belongingness hypothesis is that human be-ings have a pervasive drive to form and maintain at least a min-imum quantity of lasting, positive, and significant interpersonalrelationships. Satisfying this drive involves two criteria: First,there is a need for frequent, affectively pleasant interactionswith a few other people, and, second, these interactions musttake place in the context of a temporally stable and enduringframework of affective concern for each other's welfare.