The evidence of people choosing love over survival suggests that there's something to this, though. I'm thinking of Harlow's monkey studies in particular - the

The evidence of people choosing love over survival suggests that there's something to this, though. I'm thinking of Harlow's monkey studies in particular - there's some evidence that (macaque) infants will choose comfort over food. Certainly food is more directly tied to life, but Maslow's structure carries a lot less weight if people will seek higher tiers even when they lack the basic elements of survival.