The Parental Care Motivational System and Why it Matters (for Everyone)

Although it is easy to assume that the psychology of parental care pertains only to parents and their children, this is not so. An emerging body of research on the parental care motivational system reveals implications for everyone. All normally-developing human beings are characterized by evolved psychological mechanisms that regulate parental caregiving. These mechanisms are responsive to superficial cues and so (among non-parents as well as parents) can be triggered by the perception of young children or other childlike things. Once activated, these mechanisms precipitate protective and nurturant responses. These responses manifest in many different ways, with implications for a wide range of psychological phenomena (many of which might appear, superficially, to be unrelated to caregiving)— including risk-averse attitudes, aggression, intergroup prejudice, moral judgment, impression formation, and mate preferences. This article provides an illustrative overview of empirical research documenting these implications, and identifies new directions for future research on the motivational psychology of parental care.