FUNDAMENTAL MOTIVES AND CONFORMITY 29 why and how a mating prime would produce more conformity for omen.This finding for me supports the nption tha It is also possible that the link between mating.self- which are desirable cha 7 rotection.and simple mechani motive,in contr men to appear agrecabl a review).Research has shown.for example.that when people emale mate Ho seen in Study 2,when theg (e.gov people)m moti self-protective or rom the(arge)majority is not completely unanimous. very well con t fo Fundamental Motivations and Strategic Self-Presentation y as wel why the prime duced responding that was highly senstiv 0 ific on in ways that su ervice of strategic self-presentatio ly.the effects of the he fu no n when nal framework used in this rese ernative to the associative network model of cognit nsibly private ().Tha nal mod ill lead for the (non)co R the fur functional goal ally and outside e of the awareness of the A social learning odel may suggest th d th men reported gre e been diftere Al perspective the pre dience may strengthen th well as the appears unnecessary to elicit the motive-driven nd tew rded for avio Ho ting da ide men a p Alternative Explanations nsistent with Although the present research has adopted a functional evolu the y ma to examine pendent and from the judgme s of oth edictions regarding how va primes seve othe wher ere oh becific nre nt of the attem ofres obtained n this diction clearly derived foma function perspecti may have he d because the prime ed mon men thar ally exclusive with funet Although t ry the Griske icius. Cialdini,&Kenrick, 2006 even if the did pr Sundie 200 tion of the effects.In the affect expla of pred d suggest that to no ms of esults obtained h attems that folloy ituatio Although the possibilit of higher positive ons of hov ent tur for men and women unanimous. When group opinion was split into a majority of 3 and a minority of 1, the effects of mating motives were muted for men and women. This finding for men supports the assumption that mating motives lead men to desire to appear unique and assertive, which are desirable characteristics in a male mate. The same motive, in contrast, seems to lead women to appear agreeable and foster group cohesion, which is a desirable characteristic in a female mate. However, as seen in Study 2, when the group consists of many individuals (e.g., over 100 people), mating motives will lead men to nonconform and lead women to conform, even when the (large) majority is not completely unanimous. Fundamental Motivations and Strategic Self-Presentation The findings from all three studies fit with a functional domain￾specific model of motivation and behavior. Moreover, the results indicate that fundamental motives, such as mate attraction, can stimulate specific forms of conformity or nonconformity in the service of strategic self-presentation. Notably, the effects of the mating motive were obtained even when groups consisted of same-sex individuals (Study 1) and when people’s responses were ostensibly private (Studies 2 and 3). That is, a mating mindset led men to go against the group and led women to go along with the group even when such behavior could not produce tangible ben￾efits for the (non)conformist. Consistent with other research that activates similar motives (e.g., Maner et al., 2005; Wilson & Daly, 2004), the activation of these fundamental social motives appears to activate specific mental sets that serve to facilitate functional perceptions, cognitions, and behaviors that often occur automati￾cally and outside of the awareness of the participant. For example, Roney (2003) found that men reported greater ambition and desire to earn more money in the presence of desirable women or when the men merely looked at photos of desirable women. Although the presence of a relevant audience may strengthen the tendency for functional behaviors, a relevant audience— or even any direct audience—appears unnecessary to elicit the motive-driven behaviors. Alternative Explanations Although the present research has adopted a functional evolu￾tionary framework to examine the relationship between various social motives and conformity, it would be possible to derive predictions regarding how various primes would affect conformity from several other theoretical perspectives. However, none of these alternative approaches seems to offer as straightforward an account of the pattern of results obtained in this series of studies. For example, it is possible that the effects of a mating prime for men may have been caused because the prime produced more positive affect and arousal for men than women. Although it is unlikely that the prime produced more positive mood or arousal for men (see Griskevicius, Cialdini, & Kenrick, 2006), even if the mating scenario did produce more positive affect for men, such a finding would not constitute a particularly compelling alternative explanation of the effects. In particular, the affect explanation would suggest that positive affect leads men to nonconform in some circumstances while leading them to conform more in other situations. Although the possibility of higher positive affect for men would suggest a potential mechanism for why these (non) conformity effects occur for men, it would raise the question of why and how a mating prime would produce more conformity for women. It is also possible that the link between mating, self￾protection, and conformity is due to simple mechanisms of associative priming (Srull & Wyer, 1979; see Higgins, 1996, for a review). Research has shown, for example, that when people are primed with scrambled sentences alluding to conformity, they tend to conform more to social pressure (Epley & Gilovich, 1999). Although priming people with self-protective or roman￾tic scenarios may very well activate conformity- or nonconformity-related concepts, it is difficult to see how an associative model framework could account for the very spe￾cific pattern of sex differences and similarities in nonconfor￾mity as well as conformity that was observed in this research. Moreover, such a perspective would have difficulty explaining why the primes produced responding that was highly sensitive to the specific features of a given situation in ways that sup￾ported a more articulated interaction with different goals. The functional framework used in this research is by no means an alternative to the associative network model of cognition. Both models imply that there are certain links between motivation, cognition, and behavior. However, the functional model does more than just assert that priming specific ideas will lead to the activa￾tion of associatively linked semantic and affective categories. Rather, the functional model leads to articulated predictions re￾garding how activating specific functional goals should lead to specific goal-consistent—and sex-consistent— cognitive and be￾havioral responses (Maner et al., 2005). A social learning model may suggest that men and women have been differentially rewarded for their conformity or non￾conformity, although it is again difficult to predict from this perspective the precise pattern of sex differences and similari￾ties, as well as the sensitivity of the behaviors to specific contexts, that we found. Social role theory may suggest that men are taught and rewarded for being tough and resolute. However, in this research, cues connoting danger, which may be predicted to provide men a perfect opportunity to show their toughness and stout independence, caused men to be highly conforming, which is inconsistent with appearing tough and independent. Social role theory may also suggest that, in order to attract mates, men are taught to present themselves as inde￾pendent and autonomous from the judgments of others. Indeed, although men displayed such behaviors some of the time, a mating motive actually led men to become less independent and less autonomous when topics were objective—a specific pre￾diction clearly derived from a functional perspective. Neither social role theories nor social learning theories are mutually exclusive with functional evolutionary accounts, since evolutionary theorists presume that social roles across societies are a function of evolutionary constraints on men and women and that many behaviors involve an adaptive interplay of learning and evolved predispositions (Kenrick, Trost, & Sundie, 2004; & O¨ hman & Mineka, 2001). We are not aware, however, of predic￾tions made by social role or social learning theories for the very specific patterns of results obtained here—patterns that follow directly from considerations of how different fundamental social goals can be achieved through specific self-presentation behaviors for men and women. FUNDAMENTAL MOTIVES AND CONFORMITY 291 This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly