Distinct effects of social motivation on face evaluations in adolescents with and without autism

Individual differences in social motivation have an influence on many behaviours in both clinical and non-clinical populations. As such, social motivation has been identified as a biological trait that is particularly well-suited for dimensional approaches cutting across neuropsychological conditions. In the present paper, we tested whether social motivation had a similar impact in the general population and in a neuropsychological condition characterized by diminished social motivation: Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). More precisely, we evaluated the effect of social motivation on face evaluations in 20 adolescents with ASD and 20 matched controls using avatars parametrically varying in dominance and trustworthiness. In line with previous research, we found in the control group that participants with higher levels of social motivation relied more on perceived trustworthiness when producing likeability judgments. However, this pattern was not found in the ASD group. Social motivation thus appears to have a different effect in ASD and control populations, which raises questions about the relevance of subclinical or non-clinical populations to understand ASD.