After conducting studies that involved more than 6,000 people, Professor Reiss came up with these 16 basic desires:

1. Acceptance - the need to be appreciated
2. Curiosity, the need to gain knowledge
3. Eating, the need for food
4. Family, the need to take care of one’s offspring
5. Honor, the need to be faithful to the customary values of an individual’s ethnic group, family or clan
6. Idealism, the need for social justice
7. Independence, the need to be distinct and self-reliant