Singh presents a compelling framework for understanding how humans develop super-attractors through goal-directed subjective selection and how universal psychological goals drive convergence across societies. By emphasizing the central role of subjective selection in the cognitive mechanisms through which super-attractors emerge and persist, this framework offers a systematic explanation of cultural evolution. However, this framework overstates bottom-up cognitive processes while underestimating top-down forces embedded within normative ecologies, which shape which goals are maintained or suppressed across social contexts.

Across societies, individual evaluations of what is effective or desirable are embedded within the multilevel normative system that spans from individual-level processes in norm psychology (e.g., beliefs and expectations) to broader ecological and historical contexts that shape the emergence of norms (Gelfand, Gavrilets, & Nunn, Reference Gelfand, Gavrilets and Nunn2024; Mu & Gelfand, Reference Mu, Gelfand, Kirmayer, Kitayama, Lemelson and Worthman2020). Social norms influence behaviors by establishing prescriptive standards that define what is acceptable or desirable, enforcing compliance through social sanctions, and redirecting normative expectations that subtly guide individuals toward forming super-attractors.

While universal psychological goals may give rise to certain outcomes (e.g., cooperation), the ways in which people select and pursue these goals are shaped by social norms operating at the family, community, organizational, and societal levels. For example, cooperation often depends on perceived compliance with shared norms – conditional cooperators are willing to cooperate only when others do (Fehr & Schurtenberger, Reference Fehr and Schurtenberger2018). This raises an important question: to what extent does the interplay between subjective selection and the multilevel normative system determine which super-attractors persist and change?

Individual subjective evaluations and selection are bounded and directed by social norms, which shape not only what behaviors are acceptable but also how individuals interpret their goals. Social norms operate through prescriptive guidance and enforcement in a given context and may become internalized so that the norm is pursued as an end in itself rather than merely as a means to achieve goals or avoid sanctions (Gelfand et al., Reference Gelfand, Gavrilets and Nunn2024; Henrich & Ensminger, Reference Henrich, Ensminger, Ensminger and Henrich2014). Confucian traditions represent societal-level normative expectations about respect and relational obligations that have permeated East Asian countries for centuries. These norms are internalized into individual evaluative judgments and behavioral selections, such as hierarchical practices and maintaining interpersonal harmony (Kim & Hamilton-Hart, Reference Kim and Hamilton-Hart2022; Rozman, Reference Rozman2014). Hierarchical honorific speech in East Asian countries (e.g., Korea and Japan) reflects deeply Confucian expectations, demonstrating that even individual linguistic choices are subject to their norms (Kim & Hamilton-Hart, Reference Kim and Hamilton-Hart2022; Pizziconi, Reference Pizziconi, Kádár and Mills2011). Adherence to these norms reinforces the persistence of valued behaviors, while deviant behaviors are often corrected through social feedback (Patterson, Reference Patterson2014), showing that the maintenance of super-attractors (e.g., filial piety and respect for hierarchy) emerges from the interaction between norm enforcement and subjective selection. In other words, subjective selection does not occur in a vacuum but is socially scaffolded.

Super-attractors emerge and evolve through goal-directed subjective selection, in which the multilevel normative system shapes how individuals evaluate and retain behaviors serving these goals. Across communities and organizations, diverse norms produce divergent subjective selection even when underlying psychological goals are similar. For example, the universal psychological goal of fostering interpersonal bonds manifests through distinct selection – gratitude involves expressions of indebtedness in Korea but emphasizes interpersonal closeness in the USA, depending on prevailing norms (Vishkin et al., Reference Vishkin, Kim, Solak, Szymaniak, White and Kitayama2025). Organizational and community norms guide which behaviors are prioritized, tolerated, and discouraged (Legros & Cislaghi, Reference Legros and Cislaghi2020), effectively establishing expectations and guiding individual subjective selection and subtly reshaping goals themselves. In tight societies or communities, norms dictate not only acceptable forms of cooperation or reciprocity but also signal which achievements are valued and how individuals should invest their efforts (Elster & Ron, Reference Elster and Ron2025; Gelfand et al., Reference Gelfand, Gavrilets and Nunn2024). Importantly, even when universal psychological goals, such as social cohesion or family bonding, are shared, the normative contexts produce variations in how super-attractors are shaped. This demonstrates that while super-attractors exhibit robustness to environmental variation as proposed by Singh, their manifestations take multiple culturally specific forms, reflecting the interplay between universal human motivations and locally enacted social norms.

Beyond differences in how super-attractors are expressed, normative systems are also dynamic, continuously reshaped by broader societal forces and historical transitions at the macro level. Subjective selection is further influenced by large-scale societal changes that disrupt ecological and historical conditions, redirecting long-standing norms and leading to normative shifts. Rapid economic development and urbanization in China have reshaped social values and collective behaviors by modifying normative expectations of success, effort, and social bonding (e.g., Chen, Wang, & Liu, Reference Chen, Wang, Liu, Trommsdorff and Chen2012; Ding et al., Reference Ding, McVarnock, Li, Coplan, Ooi, Yu and Sang2025). These shifts in normative systems influence the expression of super-attractors such as governmental control and religious practices (e.g., Chua, Huang, & Jin, Reference Chua, Huang and Jin2019). Likewise, global events such as the COVID-19 pandemic have altered everyday life worldwide, creating ecological pressures such as health threats and social distancing that have triggered shifts in norms (Lu, Jin, & English, Reference Lu, Jin and English2021; Szekely et al., Reference Szekely, Tummolini, Vriens and Andrighetto2025). These normative shifts required people to reevaluate their behavioral choices. Also, perceived pandemic threat and uncertainty have undermined trust and cooperation (Liu et al., Reference Liu, Zhang, Yao, Zhang, Wang, Chen and Mu2025; Van Lange & Rand, Reference Van Lange and Rand2022), showing how ecological disruptions influence the psychological foundations of super-attractors, such as cooperative coordination. Large-scale societal shifts like the worldwide epidemic or urbanization alter normative expectations, which further influence individual subjective selection. These processes produce specific trajectories of super-attractors that are both robust and diverse in their forms. Even when universal goals like safety, cooperation, and well-being are widely shared, the specific selection adopted to realize these goals illustrates the inseparable influence of social structure on cultural evolution.

While Singh’s article posits that super-attractors emerge primarily from universal psychological goals and individual subjective selection, this perspective may not fully discuss the processes involved. By incorporating a multilevel normative ecosystem perspective, social norms filter subjective selection by constraining certain behaviors and amplifying others, thereby producing diverse trajectories of super-attractors across societies and ecological and historical contexts. Extending Singh’s model in this way would highlight that super-attractors emerge not only from innate psychological goals but also from the interplay between subjective selection and the multilevel normative system that constrains and guides individuals across different social contexts.