The Evolution of the Social Brain: Introducing SCARF in 2025

For nearly two decades, the SCARF® Model has served as a leadership guide for understanding human behavior in the workplace. Since Dr. David Rock first introduced the framework in 2008, it has provided leaders with a neuroscientific lens to understand how social drivers—Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, and Fairness—trigger the same "approach" or "avoid" responses in the brain as primary survival needs like food or physical safety.

The research team has just released its latest foundational paper: SCARF in 2025: Updating the Social Neuroscience of Collaborating with Others, authored by Brigid Lynn, PhD, MPH, Emma Sarro, PhD, and Dr. David Rock.

This isn't just a refresher; it’s an update that highlights fascinating change patterns that have implications for how leaders operate. The new research is based on a contemporary dataset of over 15,000 SCARF assessment responses collected between 2024 and 2025. The findings reveal a transformation in what employees need to feel safe, motivated, and engaged in the modern world.

The Great Reversal

The most striking finding of the 2025 report is a complete reversal of what drives people at work. When we look back at the data from 2012, Certainty and Relatedness were definitively the top drivers, ranking as the most important domains for the majority of people.

Fast forward to 2025, and we find a marked shift, likely influenced by global instability and the rise of remote work. Here, Fairness and Autonomy have emerged as the top drivers.

Fairness as the New Apex

Fairness is now the top-ranked domain. In the brain, a perceived fair exchange activates reward circuitry similar to receiving a monetary reward. Conversely, unfairness triggers the anterior insula—the same region associated with physical disgust. With heightened societal awareness around equity, employees are more sensitive than ever to transparency and justice in decision-making.

The Ascent of Autonomy

Autonomy saw the most dramatic increase in importance, jumping from the bottom of the list in 2012 to a close second in 2025. The brain registers the perception of choice as an intrinsic reward that buffers against stress. As work becomes more complex, the desire for personal agency has surpassed the need for absolute certainty.

The Decline of Certainty (As We Knew It)

Interestingly, Certainty fell from the top spot in 2012 to the very bottom in 2025. This doesn’t mean people don’t value it; rather, it suggests we may have developed a "resilience muscle" after years of global upheaval. This raises the question as to whether Certainty has become a "hygiene factor", meaning, its absence will cause a threat, but its presence is no longer the primary driver of high-level engagement.

Why Leaders Should Pay Attention 

The 2025 paper also highlights that while the SCARF domains are universal, our sensitivity to them is highly individualized and varies by role, gender, and region. For example, as individuals move up the ladder into senior leadership, their sensitivity to Certainty tends to decrease while their need for Autonomy increases. This may create a "blind spot" where leaders inadvertently micro-manage or under-communicate, not realizing that their team members (especially individual contributors) have a much higher need for explicit Certainty and Fairness than they do. Additionally, when looking across gender, females generally report a higher overall sensitivity to all SCARF domains compared to males, with a particularly strong emphasis on Status and Fairness. Taking this into consideration could include prioritizing transparent processes in every decision—from equitable reward systems to clear performance criteria.

Modernize Your Leadership Strategy

The full paper offers deep dives into the latest social cognitive neuroscience supporting the model and provides strategies for applying these findings to change management, performance, and coaching. For now, leaders can begin to adapt by focusing on three key shifts:

• Prioritize Transparency: Since Fairness is the primary driver, explain the "why" behind decisions to prevent the "disgust" response of perceived unfairness.
• Offer "Micro-Autonomy": Even in rigid environments, providing small choices—such as how a task is completed or the timing of a meeting—can trigger a significant reward response in the brain.
• Recognize Value, Not Just Rank: Status remains a powerful driver, but it is increasingly tied to feeling respected for one’s skills rather than just a job title.

The world has changed, and our brains have adapted. Is your leadership style still running on a 2012 operating system?

Join us on Wednesday, February 4 at 10 am ET for a special science webinar on the SCARF model and a deep discussion of the results that we present here. Register here.