Neural correlates of social motivation: An fMRI study on power versus affiliation Markus Quirin a, ⁎, Frank Meyer a , Nils Heise b , Julius Kuhl a , Ekkehard Küstermann c , Daniel Strüber d , John T. Cacioppo e a University of Osnabrück, Germany b University of Vienna, Austria c University of Bremen, Germany d University of Oldenburg, Germany e University of Chicago, USA abstract article info Article history: Received 9 December 2011 Received in revised form 16 May 2012 Accepted 9 July 2012 Available online 26 July 2012 Keywords: Social motivation Affiliation motive Power motive Approach motivation Romantic love Brain Hemisphere asymmetry fMRI Power versus affiliation motivations refer to two different strivings relevant in the context of social relation- ships. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to determine neural structures involved in power versus affiliation motivation based on an individual differences approach. Seventeen participants pro- vided self-reports of power and affiliation motives and were presented with love, power-related, and control movie clips. The power motive predicted activity in four clusters within the left prefrontal cortex (PFC), while participants viewed power-related film clips. The affiliation motive predicted activity in the right putamen/ pallidum while participants viewed love stories. The present findings extend previous research on social mo- tivations to the level of neural functioning and suggest differential networks for power-related versus affiliation-related social motivations. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Much of the behavior and pleasures associated with social interac- tions and relationships derive from the two basic social motives for af- filiation and power (Heckhausen and Leppmann, 1991; McClelland, 1987). Whereas the affiliation motive refers to a tendency towards establishing, maintaining, and restoring a positive relationship with other individuals (Atkinson et al., 1954), the power motive refers to a tendency towards influencing others or obtaining control over them (Veroff, 1957). Research on social relationships has been dedicated to affiliation and intimacy more than to power issues (e.g., see Kelley et al., 2003), which hence applies to the investigation of brain mechanisms associated with social relationships (e.g., Coan, 2010; Uchino et al., 1996). Nevertheless, the degree to which individuals tend to establish hierarchical, vertical relationships, i.e. those associated with power, strongly shapes the form and quality of social relationships as well (Gruenfeld et al., 2008; Keltner et al., 2003; Smith et al., 2008; Stewart and Rubin, 1974) and may have different brain correlates than strivings for affiliative or inti- mate relationships. Despite a long-standing tradition of differentiating between affilia- tion and power motives and their important role in social interactions, little or no research investigated their neural correlates. Using fMRI, the aim of the present research is to fill this gap by stimulating affiliation and power motives via movie clips and predicting corresponding neural reactions by self-report measures of affiliation and power motives. Previous research on motivational processes strongly focused on neu- robiological correlates of broad affective-motivational concepts such as approach motivation (Harmon-Jones et al., 2010) or behavioral activation (Coan and Allen, 2003; Wacker et al., 2008) and trait individual differ- ences thereof. Specifically, a broad array of electroencephalographic re- search found that activity in terms of reduced alpha frequency power measured over the left relative to the right prefrontal cortex is associated with trait and state levels of approach motivation (Harmon-Jones et al., 2010; see also Davidson, 1995; van Honk and Schutter, 2006). This link is particularly backed up by research on the emotion anger, which, albeit negative in valence, refers to an approach-motivated state (Harmon-Jones et al., 2010). Whereas relative right prefrontal cortex ac- tivity has been associated with withdrawal motivation, this relationship is less confirmed (Harmon-Jones et al., 2010). An alternative model pro- posed that relative activity over the left prefrontal cortex is linked to be- havioral activation, including both fight and flight tendencies, rather International Journal of Psychophysiology 88 (2013) 289–295 ⁎ Corresponding author at: Seminarstraße 20, 49074 Osnabrück, Germany. Tel.: + 49 541 969 4923; fax: +49 541 969 4788. E-mail address: mquirin@uos.de (M. Quirin). 0167-8760/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2012.07.003 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect International Journal of Psychophysiology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijpsycho