Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Perspective
  • Published:

Advancing scientific understanding of the drive to socially engage: from broad constructs to transdiagnostic ‘building blocks’

Molecular Psychiatry (2025)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Reduced drive to socially engage is observed across neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric conditions. However, previous research has relied on disorder-specific conceptualizations and measurement approaches that might obscure important differences in how social drive manifests and its underlying neurobiological mechanisms, both within and across different diagnostic categories. In this commentary, we argue that a model of reward processing that deconstructs social drive into ‘orienting’, ‘wanting’, ‘pursuing’, ‘liking’ and ‘learning’ processes can advance mechanistic and phenomenological understanding. Implementing this framework necessitates a multimethod measurement approach, combining rigorously validated behavioral measures and neurobiological sampling while leveraging specific developmental principles within a longitudinal research framework. Through these concerted efforts, the field will make significant strides towards developing a biologically grounded account of clinical phenomena characterized by different profiles of atypical drive to engage with others, which is a first and critical step toward the development of accurate prediction models and specific treatments.

Access through your institution
Buy or subscribe

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Access through your institution

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: A schematic of reward processes underlying social drive.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Stallworthy IC, Berry D, Davis S, Wolff JJ, Burrows CA, Swanson MR, et al. Quantifying latent social motivation and its associations with joint attention and language in infants at high and low likelihood for autism spectrum disorder. Dev Sci. 2023;26:e13336.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Su PL, Rogers SJ, Estes A, Yoder P. The role of early social motivation in explaining variability in functional language in toddlers with autism spectrum disorder. Autism. 2021;25:244–57.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Ritsner MS, Ratner Y, Mendyk N, Gooding DC. The characterization of social anhedonia and its correlates in schizophrenia and schizoaffective patients. Psychiatry Res. 2018;270:922–8.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Neuhaus E, Bernier RA, Webb SJ. Social motivation across multiple measures: caregiver-report of children with ASD. Autism Res. 2021;14:369–79.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Barkus E, Badcock JC. A transdiagnostic perspective on social anhedonia. Front. Psychiatry. 2019;10:216.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. Aldridge-Waddon L, Vanova M, Munneke J, Puzzo I, Kumari V. Atypical social reward anticipation as a transdiagnostic characteristic of psychopathology: a meta-analytic review and critical evaluation of current evidence. Clin. Psychol. Rev. 2020;82:101942.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Koegel LK, Singh AK, Koegel RL, Hollingsworth JR, Bradshaw J. Assessing and improving early social engagement in infants. J. Posit. Behav. Interv. 2014;16:69–80.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Bradshaw J, Koegel LK, Koegel RL. Improving functional language and social motivation with a parent-mediated intervention for toddlers with autism spectrum disorder. J. Autism Dev. Disord. 2017;47:2443–58.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Bennett ME, Kuykendall L, Harvey K, Lucksted A. Increasing community engagement: skills used by adults with schizophrenia participating in a psychosocial intervention. Psychiatr. Rehabil J. 2023;46:83.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  10. Dawson G, Bernier R, Ring RH. Social attention: a possible early indicator of efficacy in autism clinical trials. J. Neurodev. Disord. 2012;4:11.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  11. Webb SJ, Jones EJ, Kelly J, Dawson G. The motivation for very early intervention for infants at high risk for Autism Spectrum Disorders. Int. J. Speech-Lang Pathol. 2014;16:36–42.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  12. Insel T, Cuthbert B, Garvey M, Heinssen R, Pine DS, Quinn K, et al. Research Domain Criteria (RDoC): toward a new classification framework for research on mental disorders. AJP. 2010;167:748–51.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Kagan J, Reznick JS, Clarke C, Snidman N, Garcia-Coll C. Behavioral inhibition to the unfamiliar. Child. Dev. 1984;55:2212–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Rothbart MK, Ahadi SA, Hershey KL. Temperament and social behavior in childhood. Merrill-Palmer Q. 1994;40:21–39.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Eysenck HJ The biological basis of personality. vol. 689. Transaction publishers; Springfield, IL 1967.

  16. Digman JM. Personality structure: emergence of the five-factor model. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 1990;41:417–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Coplan RJ, Prakash K, O’Neil K, Armer M. Do you ‘want’ to play? Distinguishing between conflicted shyness and social disinterest in early childhood. Dev. Psychol. 2004;40:244–58.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Asendorpf JB. Development of inhibition during childhood: evidence for situational specificity and a two-factor model. Dev Psychol. 1990;26:721.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Wing L, Gould J. Severe impairments of social interaction and associated abnormalities in children: epidemiology and classification. J. Autism Dev. Disord. 1979;9:11–29.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Chevallier C, Kohls G, Troiani V, Brodkin ES, Schultz RT. The social motivation theory of autism. Trends Cogn. Sci. 2012;16:231–9.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  21. Dawson G, Webb SJ, McPartland J. Understanding the nature of face processing impairment in autism: insights from behavioral and electrophysiological studies. Dev Neuropsychol. 2005;27:403–24.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Mundy P. Joint attention and social-emotional approach behavior in children with autism. Dev. Psychopathol. 1995;7:63–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Constantino JN, Gruber CP Social responsiveness scale: SRS-2. 2012. Western Psychological Services; Torrance, CA: 2012.

  24. Blanchard JJ, Cohen AS. The structure of negative symptoms within schizophrenia: implications for assessment. Schizophr Bull. 2006;32:238–45.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-5. vol. 5. Washington, DC: American psychiatric association; 2013.

  26. Sagud M, Tudor L, Šimunić L, Jezernik D, Madžarac Z, Jakšić N, et al. Physical and social anhedonia are associated with suicidality in major depression, but not in schizophrenia. Suicide Life‐Threat Behav. 2021;51:446–54.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Treadway MT, Zald DH. Parsing anhedonia: translational models of reward-processing deficits in psychopathology. Curr. Dir. Psychol. Sci. 2013;22:244–9.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  28. Rizvi SJ, Pizzagalli DA, Sproule BA, Kennedy SH. Assessing anhedonia in depression: potentials and pitfalls. Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. 2016;65:21–35.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  29. Chetcuti L, Hardan AY, Spackman E, Frazier TW, Youngstrom EA, Uljarević M. Characterizing transdiagnostic processes underlying the drive to socially engage: a multi-measurement factor analytic investigation. JAACAP Open. 2024. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaacop.2024.09.007

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Chetcuti L, Hardan AY, Spackman E, Loth E, McPartland J, Frazier TW, et al. Parsing the heterogeneity of social motivation in autism. J. Child. Psychol. Psychiatry. 2025. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.14147

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Schurz M, Radua J, Tholen MG, Maliske L, Margulies DS, Mars RB, et al. Toward a hierarchical model of social cognition: a neuroimaging meta-analysis and integrative review of empathy and theory of mind. Psychol Bull. 2021;147:293.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Laird AR, Riedel MC, Sutherland MT, Eickhoff SB, Ray KL, Uecker AM, et al. Neural architecture underlying classification of face perception paradigms. Neuroimage. 2015;119:70–80.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Berridge KC, Robinson TE. What is the role of dopamine in reward: hedonic impact, reward learning, or incentive salience? Brain Res. Rev. 1998;28:309–69.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. Berridge KC, Robinson TE, Aldridge JW. Dissecting components of reward: ‘liking’, ‘wanting’, and learning. Curr. Opin. Pharmacol. 2009;9:65–73.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  35. Porcelli S, Van Der Wee N, van der Werff S, Aghajani M, Glennon JC, van Heukelum S, et al. Social brain, social dysfunction and social withdrawal. Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. 2019;97:10–33.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  36. Gooding DC, Pflum M. The transdiagnostic nature of social anhedonia: historical and current perspectives. In: Pizzagalli DA, editor. Anhedonia: preclinical, translational, and clinical integration. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2022. p. 381–95.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  37. Zald DH, Treadway MT. Reward processing, neuroeconomics, and psychopathology. Annu. Rev. Clin. Psychol. 2017;13:471–95.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  38. Ruff CC, Fehr E. The neurobiology of rewards and values in social decision making. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 2014;15:549–62.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  39. Cao Z, Ottino-Gonzalez J, Cupertino RB, Juliano A, Chaarani B, Banaschewski T, et al. Characterizing reward system neural trajectories from adolescence to young adulthood. Dev Cognit. Neurosci. 2021;52:101042.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Hwang S, Meffert H, VanTieghem MR, White SF, Sinclair S, Bookheimer SY, et al. Neurodevelopmental changes in social reinforcement processing: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Clin. Psychopharmacol. Neurosci. 2017;15:369–81.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  41. Sanislow CA, Morris SE, Cuthbert BN, Pacheco J. Development and environment in the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) research domain criteria. J. Psychopathol Clin. Sci. 2022;131:653–9.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  42. Chetcuti LC, Spackman EK, Frazier TW, Whitehouse AJO, Uljarević M. The autism phenotype and transdiagnostic dimensional frameworks. Dev Med. Child. Neurol. 2025. https://doi.org/10.1111/dmcn.16303

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  43. Frazier TW, Strauss M, Klingemier EW, Zetzer EE, Hardan AY, Eng C, et al. A meta-analysis of gaze differences to social and nonsocial information between individuals with and without autism. J. Am. Acad. Child. Adolesc. Psychiatry. 2017;56:546–55.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  44. Kohls G, Chevallier C, Troiani V, Schultz RT. Social ‘wanting’ dysfunction in autism: neurobiological underpinnings and treatment implications. J. Neurodev. Disord. 2012;4:1–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  45. Baumeister S, Moessnang C, Bast N, Hohmann S, Tillmann J, Goyard D, et al. Attenuated anticipation of social and monetary rewards in Autism Spectrum Disorders. BioRxiv:2020–07 [Preprint]. 2020. Available from: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.06.186650v1.

  46. Scott-Van Zeeland AA, Dapretto M, Ghahremani DG, Poldrack RA, Bookheimer SY. Reward processing in autism. Autism Res. 2010;3:53–67.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  47. Sepeta L, Tsuchiya N, Davies MS, Sigman M, Bookheimer SY, Dapretto M. Abnormal social reward processing in autism as indexed by pupillary responses to happy faces. J. Neurodev. Disord. 2012;4:17.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  48. Sasson NJ, Dichter GS, Bodfish JW. Affective responses by adults with autism are reduced to social images but elevated to images related to circumscribed interests. PLoS One. 2012;7:e42457.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  49. Baumeister S, Moessnang C, Bast N, Hohmann S, Aggensteiner P, Kaiser A, et al. Processing of social and monetary rewards in Autism Spectrum Disorders. Br. J. Psychiatry. 2023;222:100–11.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  50. McNaughton KA, Kirby LA, Warnell KR, Alkire D, Merchant JS, Moraczewski D, et al. Social-interactive reward elicits similar neural response in autism and typical development and predicts future social experiences. Dev Cognit. Neurosci. 2023;59:101197.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  51. Clements CC, Zoltowski AR, Yankowitz LD, Yerys BE, Schultz RT, Herrington JD. Evaluation of the social motivation hypothesis of autism: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Psychiatry. 2018;75:797–808.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  52. Keifer CM, Day TC, Hauschild KM, Lerner MD. Social and nonsocial reward anticipation in typical development and Autism Spectrum Disorders: current status and future directions. Curr. Psychiatry Rep. 2021;23:32.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  53. Schwarz K, Moessnang C, Schweiger JI, Baumeister S, Plichta MM, Brandeis D, et al. Transdiagnostic prediction of affective, cognitive, and social function through brain reward anticipation in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression, and Autism Spectrum diagnoses. Schizophr Bull. 2020;46:592–602.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  54. Delmonte S, Balsters JH, McGrath J, Fitzgerald J, Brennan S, Fagan AJ, et al. Social and monetary reward processing in Autism Spectrum Disorders. Mol. Autism. 2012;3:7.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  55. Kim K, Rosenthal MZ, Gwaltney M, Jarrold W, Hatt N, McIntyre N, et al. A virtual joy-stick study of emotional responses and social motivation in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. J. Autism Dev. Disord. 2015;45:3891–9.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  56. Dubey I, Ropar D, de C Hamilton AF. Measuring the value of social engagement in adults with and without Autism. Mol. Autism. 2015;6:35.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  57. Ruta L, Famà FI, Bernava GM, Leonardi E, Tartarisco G, Falzone A, et al. Reduced preference for social rewards in a novel tablet based task in young children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Sci. Rep. 2017;7:3329.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  58. Dubey I, Ropar D, de C. Hamilton AF. Brief report: a comparison of the preference for viewing social and non-social movies in typical and autistic adolescents. J. Autism Dev. Disord. 2017;47:514–9.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  59. Traynor JM, Gough A, Duku E, Shore DI, Hall GBC. Eye tracking effort expenditure and autonomic arousal to social and circumscribed interest stimuli in Autism Spectrum Disorder. J. Autism Dev. Disord. 2019;49:1988–2002.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  60. Ewing L, Pellicano E, Rhodes G. Using effort to measure reward value of faces in children with Autism. PLOS ONE. 2013;8:e79493.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  61. Gilbertson LR, Lutfi RA, Ellis Weismer S. Auditory preference of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Cogn. Process. 2017;18:205–9.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  62. Schuetze M, Rohr CS, Dewey D, McCrimmon A, Bray S. Reinforcement learning in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Front. Psychol. 2017;8:2035.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  63. Tschida JE, Yerys BE. A systematic review of the positive valence system in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Neuropsychol. Rev. 2021;31:58–88.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  64. Schipul SE, Williams DL, Keller TA, Minshew NJ, Just MA. Distinctive neural processes during learning in Autism. Cereb. Cortex. 2012;22:937–50.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  65. Barch DM, Pagliaccio D, Luking K Mechanisms underlying motivational deficits in psychopathology: similarities and differences in depression and schizophrenia. In: Simpson EH, Balsam PD, editors. Behavioral neuroscience of motivation, Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2016. pp. 411-49.

  66. Hallford DJ, Sharma MK. Anticipatory pleasure for future experiences in schizophrenia spectrum disorders and major depression: a systematic review and meta‐analysis. Br. J. Clin. Psychol. 2019;58:357–83.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  67. Visser KF, Chapman HC, Ruiz I, Raugh IM, Strauss GP. A meta-analysis of self-reported anticipatory and consummatory pleasure in the Schizophrenia Spectrum. J. Psychiatr. Res. 2020;121:68–81.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  68. Pechtel P, Dutra SJ, Goetz EL, Pizzagalli DA. Blunted reward responsiveness in remitted depression. J. Psychiatr. Res. 2013;47:1864–9.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  69. Pizzagalli DA, Iosifescu D, Hallett LA, Ratner KG, Fava M. Reduced hedonic capacity in major depressive disorder: evidence from a probabilistic reward task. J. Psychiatr. Res. 2008;43:76–87.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  70. Abel DB, Rand KL, Salyers MP, Myers EJ, Mickens JL, Minor KS. Do people with schizophrenia enjoy social activities as much as everyone else? A meta-analysis of consummatory social pleasure. Schizophr Bull. 2023;49:809–22.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  71. Gard DE, Kring AM, Gard MG, Horan WP, Green MF. Anhedonia in schizophrenia: distinctions between anticipatory and consummatory pleasure. Schizophr Res. 2007;93:253–60.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  72. Catalano LT, Green MF, Wynn JK, Lee J. People with schizophrenia do not show the normal benefits of social versus nonsocial attentional cues. Neuropsychology. 2020;34:620–8.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  73. Catalano LT, Wynn JK, Lee J, Green MF. A comparison of stages of attention for social and nonsocial stimuli in schizophrenia: an ERP study. Schizophr Res. 2021;238:128–36.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  74. Sasson N, Tsuchiya N, Hurley R, Couture SM, Penn DL, Adolphs R, et al. Orienting to social stimuli differentiates social cognitive impairment in autism and schizophrenia. Neuropsychologia. 2007;45:2580–8.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  75. Suslow T, Husslack A, Kersting A, Bodenschatz CM. Attentional biases to emotional information in clinical depression: a systematic and meta-analytic review of eye tracking findings. J. Affect. Disord. 2020;274:632–42.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  76. Fulford D, Campellone T, Gard DE. Social motivation in schizophrenia: how research on basic reward processes informs and limits our understanding. Clin. Psychol. Rev. 2018;63:12–24.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  77. Horne SJ, Topp TE, Quigley L. Depression and the willingness to expend cognitive and physical effort for rewards: a systematic review. Clin. Psychol. Rev. 2021;88:102065.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  78. Campellone TR, Truong B, Gard D, Schlosser DA. Social motivation in people with recent-onset schizophrenia spectrum disorders. J. Psychiatr. Res. 2018;99:96–103.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  79. Liang C-W, Lin P-R, Chang C, Zeng J-Y, Chan Y-Y, Hung F-C. Money versus thumbs up: effort expenditure for rewards in schizophrenia. Asian J. Psychiatry. 2023;80:103378.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  80. Hanssen E, van Buuren M, Van Atteveldt N, Lemmers-Jansen IL, Fett A-KJ. Neural, behavioural and real-life correlates of social context sensitivity and social reward learning during interpersonal interactions in the schizophrenia spectrum. Aust. N. Z. J. Psychiatry. 2022;56:59–70.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  81. Hanssen E, Krabbendam L, Robberegt S, Fett A-K. Social and non-social reward learning reduced and related to a familial vulnerability in schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Schizophr Res. 2020;215:256–62.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  82. Safra L, Chevallier C, Palminteri S. Depressive symptoms are associated with blunted reward learning in social contexts. PLoS Comput Biol. 2019;15:e1007224.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  83. Jin Y, Gao Q, Wang Y, Dietz M, Xiao L, Cai Y, et al. Impaired social learning in patients with major depressive disorder revealed by a reinforcement learning model. Int. J. Clin. Health Psychol. 2023;23:100389.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  84. Henco L, Diaconescu AO, Lahnakoski JM, Brandi M-L, Hörmann S, Hennings J, et al. Aberrant computational mechanisms of social learning and decision-making in schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder. PLoS Comput Biol. 2020;16:e1008162.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  85. Rademacher L, Krach S, Kohls G, Irmak A, Gründer G, Spreckelmeyer KN. Dissociation of neural networks for anticipation and consumption of monetary and social rewards. Neuroimage. 2010;49:3276–85.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  86. Treadway MT, Buckholtz JW, Schwartzman AN, Lambert WE, Zald DH. Worth the ‘EEfRT’? The effort expenditure for rewards task as an objective measure of motivation and anhedonia. PLoS ONE. 2009;4:e6598.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  87. Frey A-L, Frank MJ, McCabe C. Social reinforcement learning as a predictor of real-life experiences in individuals with high and low depressive symptomatology. Psychol Med. 2021;51:408–15.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  88. Brunia CHM, Hackley SA, van Boxtel GJM, Kotani Y, Ohgami Y. Waiting to perceive: reward or punishment? Clin. Neurophysiol. 2011;122:858–68.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  89. Novak KD, Foti D. Teasing apart the anticipatory and consummatory processing of monetary incentives: an event‐related potential study of reward dynamics. Psychophysiology. 2015;52:1470–82.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  90. Gooding DC, Pflum MJ. The assessment of interpersonal pleasure: introduction of the Anticipatory and Consummatory Interpersonal Pleasure Scale (ACIPS) and preliminary findings. Psychiatry Res. 2014;215:237–43.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  91. Eckblad M, Chapman L, Chapman J, Mishlove M. The revised social anhedonia scale. Madison: University of Wisconsin. 1982; 1982.

  92. Makransky G, Mortensen EL, Glas CAW. Improving personality facet scores with multidimensional computer adaptive testing: an illustration with the neo Pi-R. Assessment. 2013;20:3–13.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  93. Forbey JD, Ben-Porath YS. Computerized adaptive personality testing: a review and illustration with the MMPI-2 computerized adaptive version. Psychol Assess. 2007;19:14–24.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  94. Muurling M, Reus LM, de Boer C, Wessels SC, Jagesar RR, Vorstman JAS, et al. Assessment of social behavior using a passive monitoring app in cognitively normal and cognitively impaired older adults: Observational Study. JMIR Aging. 2022;5:e33856.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  95. Kas MJ, Jongs N, Mennes M, Penninx BW, Arango C, van der Wee N, et al. Digital behavioural signatures reveal trans-diagnostic clusters of Schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease patients. Eur. Neuropsychopharmacol. 2024;78:3–12.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  96. Kotov R, Krueger RF, Watson D, Achenbach TM, Althoff RR, Bagby RM, et al. The Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP): a dimensional alternative to traditional nosologies. J. Abnorm. Psychol. 2017;126:454–77.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  97. Lahey BB, Krueger RF, Rathouz PJ, Waldman ID, Zald DH. A hierarchical causal taxonomy of psychopathology across the life span. Psychol Bull. 2017;143:142–86.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  98. Lahey BB, Van Hulle CA, Singh AL, Waldman ID, Rathouz PJ. Higher-order genetic and environmental structure of prevalent forms of child and adolescent psychopathology. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry. 2011;68:181–9.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  99. Karevold E, Ystrom E, Coplan RJ, Sanson AV, Mathiesen KS. A prospective longitudinal study of shyness from infancy to adolescence: stability, age-related changes, and prediction of socio-emotional functioning. J. Abnorm. Child. Psychol. 2012;40:1167–77.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  100. Coplan RJ, Arbeau KA, Armer M. Don’t fret, be supportive! Maternal characteristics linking child shyness to psychosocial and school adjustment in kindergarten. J. Abnorm. Child. Psychol. 2008;36:359–71.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  101. Baardstu S, Coplan RJ, Karevold EB, Laceulle OM, von Soest T. Longitudinal pathways from shyness in early childhood to personality in adolescence: do peers matter? J. Res. Adolesc. 2020;30:362–79.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  102. Clements CC, Ascunce K, Nelson CA. In context: a developmental model of reward processing, with implications for autism and sensitive periods. J. Am. Acad. Child. Adolesc. Psychiatry. 2022;62:1200–16.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  103. Coplan RJ, Ooi LL, Baldwin D. Does it matter when we want to be alone? Exploring developmental timing effects in the implications of unsociability. N. Ideas Psychol. 2019;53:47–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  104. Bottini S. Social reward processing in individuals with autism spectrum disorder: a systematic review of the social motivation hypothesis. Res. Autism Spectr. Disord. 2018;45:9–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  105. Gooding DC, Tallent KA, Matts CW. Rates of avoidant, schizotypal, schizoid and paranoid personality disorders in psychometric high-risk groups at five year follow-up. Schizophr Res. 2007;94:373.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  106. Umesh S, Nizamie SH, Goyal N, Tikka S, Bose S. Social anhedonia and gamma band abnormalities as a composite/multivariate endophenotype for schizophrenia: a dense array EEG study. Early Interv Psychiatry. 2018;12:362–71.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  107. Kohls G, Schulte-Rüther M, Nehrkorn B, Müller K, Fink GR, Kamp-Becker I, et al. Reward system dysfunction in autism spectrum disorders. Soc. Cognit. Affect. Neurosci. 2013;8:565–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  108. Thye MD, Bednarz HM, Herringshaw AJ, Sartin EB, Kana RK. The impact of atypical sensory processing on social impairments in autism spectrum disorder. Dev Cognit. Neurosci. 2018;29:151–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  109. Haskins AJ, Mentch J, Botch TL, Garcia BD, Burrows AL, Robertson CE. Reduced social attention in autism is magnified by perceptual load in naturalistic environments. Autism Res. 2022;15:2310–23.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  110. Krach S, Paulus F, Bodden M, Kircher T. The rewarding nature of social interactions. Front. Behav. Neurosci. 2010;4:22.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  111. Dodell-Feder D, Tully LM, Lincoln SH, Hooker CI. The neural basis of theory of mind and its relationship to social functioning and social anhedonia in individuals with schizophrenia. NeuroImage Clin. 2014;4:154–63.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  112. Sniezek JA, May DR, Sawyer JE. Social uncertainty and interdependence: a study of resource allocation decisions in groups. Organ. Behav. Hum. Decis. Process. 1990;46:155–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  113. Jaswal VK, Akhtar N. Being versus appearing socially uninterested: challenging assumptions about social motivation in autism. Behav. Brain Sci. 2019;42:e82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  114. Gernsbacher MA, Stevenson JL, Khandakar S, Goldsmith HH. Why does joint attention look atypical in autism? Child. Dev. Perspect. 2008;2:38–45.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  115. Golombek K, Lidle L, Tuschen-Caffier B, Schmitz J, Vierrath V. The role of emotion regulation in socially anxious children and adolescents: a systematic review. Eur. Child. Adolesc. Psychiatry. 2020;29:1479–501.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  116. Taylor CT, Bomyea J, Amir N. Attentional bias away from positive social information mediates the link between social anxiety and anxiety vulnerability to a social stressor. J. Anxiety Disord. 2010;24:403–8.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  117. Chetcuti L, Richdale AL, Haschek A, Uljarević M, Lawson LP. Brief report: discrete effortful control skills moderate relations between childhood behavioural inhibition and mental health difficulties in autistic youth. J. Autism Dev. Disord. 2023;53:489–94.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  118. Hoffman RE. A social deafferentation hypothesis for induction of active schizophrenia. Schizophr Bull. 2007;33:1066–70.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  119. Rappaport BI, Hennefield L, Kujawa A, Arfer KB, Kelly D, Kappenman ES, et al. Peer victimization and dysfunctional reward processing: ERP and behavioral responses to social and monetary rewards. Front. Behav. Neurosci. 2019;13:120.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  120. Spence SH, Rapee RM. The etiology of social anxiety disorder: an evidence-based model. Behav. Res. Ther. 2016;86:50–67.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  121. Li L, Durand-de Cuttoli R, Aubry AV, Burnett CJ, Cathomas F, Parise LF, et al. Social trauma engages lateral septum circuitry to occlude social reward. Nature. 2023;613:696–703.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  122. Brown LH, Silvia PJ, Myin-Germeys I, Kwapil TR. When the need to belong goes wrong: the expression of social anhedonia and social anxiety in daily life. Psychol. Sci. 2007;18:778–82.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  123. Sette S, Zava F, Baumgartner E, Baiocco R, Coplan RJ. Shyness, unsociability, and socio-emotional functioning at preschool: the protective role of peer acceptance. J. Child. Fam. Stud. 2017;26:1196–205.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  124. Sescousse G, Redouté J, Dreher J-C. The architecture of reward value coding in the human orbitofrontal cortex. J. Neurosci. 2010;30:13095–104.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  125. Gu R, Huang W, Camilleri J, Xu P, Wei P, Eickhoff SB, et al. Love is analogous to money in human brain: coordinate-based and functional connectivity meta-analyses of social and monetary reward anticipation. Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. 2019;100:108–28.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  126. Stavropoulos KKM, Carver LJ. Reward anticipation and processing of social versus nonsocial stimuli in children with and without autism spectrum disorders. J. Child. Psychol. Psychiatry. 2014;55:1398–408.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  127. Bedford R, Pickles A, Gliga T, Elsabbagh M, Charman T, Johnson MH, et al. Additive effects of social and non-social attention during infancy relate to later autism spectrum disorder. Dev Sci. 2014;17:612–20.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  128. Kohls G, Peltzer J, Herpertz-Dahlmann B, Konrad K. Differential effects of social and non-social reward on response inhibition in children and adolescents. Dev Sci. 2009;12:614–25.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  129. Kohls G, Antezana L, Mosner MG, Schultz RT, Yerys BE. Altered reward system reactivity for personalized circumscribed interests in autism. Mol. Autism. 2018;9:9.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  130. Cicchetti D, Rogosch FA. Equifinality and multifinality in developmental psychopathology. Dev. Psychopathol. 1996;8:597–600.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Lacey Chetcuti, Antonio Y. Hardan & Mirko Uljarevic

  2. Department of Psychology, John Carroll University, University Heights, OH, USA

    Thomas W. Frazier

  3. Department of Pediatrics and Psychiatry, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY, USA

    Thomas W. Frazier

  4. Autism Speaks, New York, NY, USA

    Thomas W. Frazier

  5. Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, UK

    Eva Loth

  6. Yale Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

    James C. McPartland

  7. Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus, OH, USA

    Eric A. Youngstrom

  8. Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Eric A. Youngstrom

Authors
  1. Lacey Chetcuti
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Antonio Y. Hardan
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Thomas W. Frazier
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Eva Loth
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  5. James C. McPartland
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Eric A. Youngstrom
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Mirko Uljarevic
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

LC conceived the topic of the commentary and prepared the initial draft. AYH and MU provided supervision, contributed to the refinement of ideas, and offered critical revisions. TWF, EL, JCM, and EAY contributed to the refinement of ideas and provided critical revisions. All authors contributed substantially to the writing and approved the final version.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lacey Chetcuti.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

This project was supported by grant 1R01MH129833 (Hardan & Uljarevic) by the National Institute of Mental Health. Dr. Hardan has received grant or research support from the National Institutes of Health, Autism Speaks, and the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative. He has served on the advisory board/Data and Safety Monitoring Board of Roche. He has co-authored the Stanford Social Dimensions Scale (SSDS). He has served as a consultant to BioBridge, Roche, Finch Therapeutics, and the PTEN Research Foundation and has equity options in iSCAN-R and AI-Measures. He has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders and Child Psychiatry and Human Development. He has held patents (in preparation, filed, or granted) on N-acetyl cysteine, pregnenolone, and arginine vasopressin. Dr. Frazier has received funding or research support from, acted as a consultant to, received travel support from, and/or received a speaker’s honorarium from the PTEN Research Foundation, SYNGAP Research Fund, Malan Syndrome Foundation, ADNP Kids Research Foundation, Quadrant Biosciences, Autism Speaks, Impel NeuroPharma, F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG Pharmaceuticals, the Cole Family Research Fund, Simons Foundation, Ingalls Foundation, Forest Laboratories, Ecoeos, IntegraGen, Kugona LLC, Shire Development, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Roche Pharma, MaraBio, Scioto Biosciences, National Institutes of Health, and the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, has equity options in Quadrant Biosciences/Autism Analytica, MaraBio, and Springtide, and has an investor stake in Autism EYES LLC. Dr. McPartland consults with Customer Value Partners, Bridgebio, Determined Health, Apple, Neumarker, and BlackThorn Therapeutics, has received research funding from Janssen Research and Development, serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards of Pastorus and Modern Clinics, and receives royalties from Guilford Press, Lambert, Oxford, and Springer. His effort was supported by NIMH U19 MH108206. Dr. Youngstrom is the co-founder and Executive Director of Helping Give Away Psychological Science, a 501c3; he has consulted about psychological assessment with Signant Health and received royalties from the American Psychological Association and Guilford Press, and he holds equity in Joe Startup Technologies. Dr. Uljarević has received grant or research support from the National Institute of Mental Health, Simons Foundation, Autism Speaks and PTEN Research. He serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, PLOS One, Frontiers in Psychiatry, and Frontiers in Neuroscience, and has co-authored the Stanford Social Dimensions Scale (SSDS). Drs. Chetcuti and Loth have no financial interests or potential conflicts of interests to declare.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Chetcuti, L., Hardan, A.Y., Frazier, T.W. et al. Advancing scientific understanding of the drive to socially engage: from broad constructs to transdiagnostic ‘building blocks’. Mol Psychiatry (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-025-03185-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-025-03185-9

Search

Advanced search

Quick links