Living close to family linked to harsher views on aggression and punishment

We all know that how emotionally close we are with our families can influence our politics, our personalities, and our perspectives on the world. What we consider less often, however, is how much our ongoing physical closeness to family plays a role in shaping our values and behaviours.

Writing in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Attitudes and Social Cognition, a team led by Oliver Sng suggests that "ecological relatedness" – the relationship between ourselves and the number of relatives living near us – can influence not just our personalities, but even our views on extreme behaviours like punishment or aggression.

The initial few studies described in this paper explored whether geographical closeness influences social attitudes. In the first, 220 participants indicated how big of a role their family members play in their daily environment, as well as evaluated how much they identified with their community, country, and the world. They also reported how much they trusted in neighbours, foreigners, and family. Participants then rated their willingness to sacrifice their own self-interest for their social group and how far they would go to protect it, including through aggressive means like hurting others or even going to war. Finally, they indicated their level of support for capital punishment for murder.

In a follow-up study, participants were randomly assigned to read one of two scenarios. One group imagined living in a community surrounded by family members, while the other imagined living among strangers, before completing the same measures as in the first study.

The results from both showed a clear pattern: people who lived closer to relatives (or imagined doing so) were more likely to see themselves as interdependent rather than independent, and reported higher trust in neighbours. This proximity also influenced participants' willingness to engage in extreme pro-group behaviours: in the first study, those living closer to family were more likely to endorse aggressive actions, such as hurting others to protect their group, as well as supporting capital punishment for murderers.

The researchers acknowledge that the divisiveness of capital punishment may have affected these results, so in the next study the 42% of participants who already held strong views on the death penalty were excluded from analysis. However, this didn't erase the relationship between these variables; those with a history of living near family were still more likely to support capital punishment. This reinforces the idea that high levels of ecological relatedness can shape how we view the world — and potentially our behaviour too.

In a final study, the team analysed global data to understand how closely-related environments can influence traits and behaviour. Using national data on cousin marriage rates from 71 regions, the team examined levels of interdependence, social identity, trust, and pro-group behaviours. Once again, societies with higher ecological relatedness — indicated here by higher cousin marriage rates — exhibited stronger local or national identity, greater trust within the group, and more pro-group behaviours.

This may not paint a full picture, however. Cousin marriage rates are shaped by all kinds of cultural, religious, and legal factors that differ across societies and that shape behaviours in ways unrelated to family proximity. Similarly, in some cultures, families may live close together without cousin marriage, making it a less useful measure for ecological relatedness.

Still, the researchers argue that pro-group behaviours make sense for those with particularly strong identification with family and community. Harsher punishment for anti-social behaviours may arise from a desire to protect one's family from harm, for example. As lead author Oliver Sng puts it: "You naturally feel more connected to those around you, as many of them are family of some sort. But this also means that there are more people around you that you need to protect."

The team also points to prior research suggesting that those who move away from their birthplace develop a more "central personal self" and a less "central collective self", developing a stronger sense of personal identity and valuing their individuality more than their collective social ties.

This doesn't explain why living close to family is so important, though, compared to living near close friends or a wider community. It also overlooks the complexities of family relationships: not all familial ties are positive. Understanding how negative dynamics might influence behaviour and traits would be a compelling direction for future research. Exploring these nuances could help create a fuller picture of how our relationships shape us in different ways, from the choices we make to the values we hold.

Sng, O., Choi, M., & Ackerman, J. M. (2024). The ecology of relatedness: How living around family (or not) matters. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000428

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