A fundamental motive
Maslow's hierarchy of needs (1943) placed love and belonging just above physiological and safety needs. Baumeister and Leary (1995) went further and treated belonging as one of the most fundamental human motives. Their criteria for a fundamental motive included that it arises readily under almost any conditions, affects emotion and cognition, produces ill effects when thwarted and is universal across cultures. They argued that relationships need both frequent positive interaction and a stable bond of mutual concern, and that once people have enough relationships, the drive to form new ones weakens.
When belonging is thwarted
Thwarted belonging has many consequences. Twenge and colleagues (2001) showed that participants told they would end up alone in life, or rejected by a group, later behaved more aggressively toward others. Baumeister and colleagues (2002) found that merely anticipating future aloneness impaired performance on complex reasoning tasks. Gardner and colleagues (2000) showed that excluded people better remember social information, suggesting the need to belong directs attention toward reconnecting. This work underpins research on social exclusion.
Measurement, health and critiques
Leary and colleagues (2013) validated a scale of individual differences in the need to belong, confirming that people high in it are more sensitive to rejection and more attentive to relationships. Holt-Lunstad and colleagues (2010) meta-analyzed 148 studies and found that people with stronger social relationships had substantially greater odds of survival. The theory became the starting point for sociometer theory and the temporal need-threat model. Debate continues over whether belonging is more fundamental than other motives and how it differs from needs such as autonomy and competence.
FAQ
- What is need to belong theory in simple terms?
- People are built to want lasting, caring relationships, so lacking them affects both mind and body.
- Are more relationships always better?
- The theory holds that a few stable, warm relationships satisfy much of the need, so quality and continuity matter more than sheer number.
Sources reviewed: 2026-10-26
References
- Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117(3), 497–529. The founding statement of the belongingness hypothesis.
- Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370–396. The classic hierarchy placing love and belonging among basic needs.
- Twenge, J. M., Baumeister, R. F., Tice, D. M., & Stucke, T. S. (2001). If you can't join them, beat them: Effects of social exclusion on aggressive behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(6), 1058–1069. Shows that exclusion increases aggression.
- Baumeister, R. F., Twenge, J. M., & Nuss, C. K. (2002). Effects of social exclusion on cognitive processes: Anticipated aloneness reduces intelligent thought. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(4), 817–827. Anticipated aloneness impairs intelligent thought.
- Gardner, W. L., Pickett, C. L., & Brewer, M. B. (2000). Social exclusion and selective memory: How the need to belong influences memory for social events. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26(4), 486–496. Shows the need to belong sharpens memory for social information.
- Leary, M. R., Kelly, K. M., Cottrell, C. A., & Schreindorfer, L. S. (2013). Construct validity of the Need to Belong Scale: Mapping the nomological network. Journal of Personality Assessment, 95(6), 610–624. Validates the Need to Belong Scale.
- Holt-Lunstad, J., Smith, T. B., & Layton, J. B. (2010). Social relationships and mortality risk: A meta-analytic review. PLoS Medicine, 7(7), e1000316. Meta-analysis linking social relationships with mortality.