Dopamine's primary role is motivation and desire to pursue more in order to reduce future pain, rather than solely about pleasure.

“So we can distinguish between dopamine which is really about pleasure and dopamine which is really about motivation to pursue more in order to relieve or exclude future pain. Let me repeat that. Dopamine isn't as much about pleasure, as much as it is about motivation and desire to pursue more in order to reduce the amount of pain”

“It is not the molecule of reward, it is the molecule of craving motivation and drive.”

“So we have dopamine associated with motivation, drive and pursuit and to some extent, focus.”