Any thoughts on Social Motivation Theory of Autism?

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My mother has lots of evidence of reduced social motivation when I was a child, as it was an obvious trait of mine.
I didn't seek others' company, didn't share play or ideas with others, didn't try to get attention from adults, didn't notice other children, rarely responded to others, rarely looked at others, all socially aloof behaviors present from infancy, not behaviors developed at a later age.
My own memories are also consistent with being happy alone and not wanting attention, company, or engagement of others.

Yes that sounds like a social motivation defecit early on. Interesting how our early histories seem so different. Still, spectrums are like that I guess.

I wonder what happens when someone with low social motivation (prefers to be by himself and limit interactions with others) grows up in a family which encourages being social (and ridicules being unsocial). You probably end up with a screwed up kid. Who thinks something is wrong with him. That’s sort of how I felt growing up.

Yep, - mental trauma and dissociation.

This theory falls in line well with my own that involves self-assembled "hive mind" algorithms that easily function within NT brains, essentially highjacking both thought and the chemical reward pathways that ultimately determine and control motivations. The differences in the ASD brain prevents the efficient uploading and functioning of these algorithms, thus resulting in a situation of a significant lack of chemical rewards in the brain, anhedonia, depression, anxiety, and a large list of other results.

Basically, we are individuals lacking certain motivations, but are embedded into a society that does have those motivations, and that situation causes us a great amount of problems.

When I talk about the hive-mind functioning and "motivation" in this context, I'm talking about very powerful functions that happen subconsciously, and out of our normal ability to view or realize. Having a conscious desire for some types of socialization is natural and expected because we are conscious of the context we are embedded within. This is a completely separate thing to the subconscious motivation processes I'm speaking of here.

Yes to repeatedly throw a young introvert into the social deep end is asking for trouble.

For me it was the other way round. I was rather discouraged from socialising except under very carefully-controlled conditions. It was probably an easier ride than yours. I often broke the rules and socialised anyway. My social ineptitude didn't really show up to spoil things until I was rather older.

Olympiadis, I I basically agree with what you're saying, but what do you think of the paper's assertions about preschoolers schmoozing? I mean the "spontaneously engaging in positive self-presentation, prosocial lies, and negative emotion concealment for politeness purposes." How could that manifest itself in people so young? I don't think I've ever seen it. Thing is, the paper is talking about the initial driver of ASD, so knowing what happens in very young children seems rather crucial.

When I was a young child I did see it, but it was relatively rare compared to today. As time goes on the hive mind grows and the memes get downloaded faster and at a younger age due to an overall increase in social interactions, and the nature of our media now. When you were very young it may have been more rare, or harder to discern.

Hmmm...

This makes me wonder: Do introverts also have low social motivation?

Perhaps this is support for Jennifer Grimes' master's thesis <click here> (which asserts that introversion actually is on the autism scale.).

I stands to reason that many aspies and all introverts have low social motivation, the latter arguably by definition. Placing introversion on the autistic spectrum is problematic with respect to the existence of extroverted aspies, a minority that should not be brushed under the carpet. The open questions by the authors of the paper on social motivation acknowledge the challenge:



I am certainly introverted and would also rate my social motivation very low. But some others seem to have much more of a desire to fit in socially.

Yes, interesting. In my mid-20s I took the Hans Eysenck personality questionnaire, and was horrified to find I came out as an introvert. I'd always felt a strong need for friends, but my success in finding and keeping them had been patchy and precarious, and I was deeply concerned about that. I railed against it and pitted my wits against the problem, sometimes with amazing success, but couldn't help noticing that things were still patchy and precarious. I calmed down as I grew older, and lowered my expectations to something more sustainable. It was only when I was diagnosed with Aspergers that the whole thing really made sense. That's why I find it so mind-boggling that somebody is saying the root of ASD is a lack of social motivation. Thanks to the recent posts here I can see that it can be true for some ASDers (though the idea is still sinking in), but for me, and I presume for many of us, it's just plain wrong.

What if it was stated as "the root of ASD behaviors is lack of subconscious social motivation" ?

I wonder how you would test this?

I would think that something much like the Asch Conformity test would be very useful and revealing.

In fact, that sort of conformity comes from the subconscious when an individual is embedded into a group dynamic.
If the person is alone, then conscious thought can prevail. When in a group, the motivation changes.
The individual will feel a type of punishment coming from the subconscious for non-conformity. It's a feeling of discomfort, or absence of the "feel good" from the chemical reward pathways.

Much of social motivation is subconscious, but measurable as behaviors, e.g. fast, automatic orienting to social stimuli.

Hmmm.......how could they have measured that in preschoolers?

Sorry, didn't notice that had already been covered.

Aspects of social motivation can be measured in infants by their social orienting and viewing preferences.