Epidemiological Dimensions of Social Anhedonia

Social anhedonia (SA)—reduced drive for and pleasure from social interaction—is associated with social/emotional dysfunction and risk for psychopathology. However, our understanding of the factors that contribute to variation in SA remains limited. Here, we investigate the epidemiology of SA in an international population-based sample of more than 19,000 individuals who completed the Revised Social Anhedonia Scale through TestMyBrain.org. We find that SA exhibits considerable variation over the life span and is higher in males versus females, people of lower socioeconomic status, those of African ethnicity, nonmigrants, and people living in ethnically dense locations and less urban environments. Gender, socioeconomic status, and urbanicity were the only factors that captured unique variance in SA. These findings provide a framework for understanding how variation in epidemiological factors contribute to variation in elemental building blocks of psychopathology, and demonstrate the utility of using big data approaches toward the study of risk and Research Domain Criteria dimensions.