Renovating the pyramid of needs: Contemporary extensions built upon ancient foundations
Kenrick, Griskevicius, Neuberg and Schaller revisit the 1943 pyramid of needs, which they note has been widely adopted in the behavioural sciences and which saw motives as rooted in innate, universal predispositions. Drawing on biology, anthropology and psychology, they argue the basic structure is worth keeping but needs extensions that link motives to situational threats and opportunities and ground the hierarchy in modern evolutionary theory, and offer a renovated hierarchy as an integrative framework.
Kenrick, Griskevicius, Neuberg and Schaller revisit the 1943 pyramid of needs, which they note has been widely adopted in the behavioural sciences and which saw motives as rooted in innate, universal predispositions. Drawing on biology, anthropology and psychology, they argue the basic structure is worth keeping but needs extensions that link motives to situational threats and opportunities and ground the hierarchy in modern evolutionary theory, and offer a renovated hierarchy as an integrative framework.
Written from the abstract, OpenAlex record and journal record, 2026-11-11.
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Kenrick, D. T., Griskevicius, V., Neuberg, S. L., & Schaller, M. (2010). Renovating the pyramid of needs: Contemporary extensions built upon ancient foundations. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5(3), 292-314. doi:10.1177/1745691610369469 https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691610369469