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H uman beings are an unusually social species. Although many other animals live in herds, flocks, schools, troupes, and other social groupings, none are as chroni-cally immersed in such a wide array of relationships as human beings. People not only live in groups and establish a variety of relationships with other individuals, but they are also pervasively concerned with the degree to which they are accepted by those with whom they interact. In fact, evidence suggests that people possess a “need to belong” that motivates them to seek and maintain some minimum number of strong and abiding relationships with both individuals and groups (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). This motive has been referred to by a number of terms—such as the need to belong, motivation for acceptance, and belonging motivation—and we use the latter term to acknowledge the fact that the degree to which people are motivated to be ac-cepted and to belong springs from a variety of sources, only one of which is the innate “need” to belong described by Baumeister and Leary (1995). All normal human beings desire some degree of social acceptance and belonging, and people who show absolutely no interest in interpersonal relationships invariably dis-play signs of psychological dysfunction. Yet, like virtually all motives, belonging motivation varies across individuals. Some people are strongly motivated to foster and maintain belonging and acceptance across a wide variety of people, groups, and situations, whereas others manifest a weaker desire to establish and maintain social connections. Our goal in this chapter is to describe and explain these individual differences …