Welcome to the new version of CaltechAUTHORS. Login is currently restricted to library staff. If you notice any issues, please email coda@library.caltech.edu
Published November 2015 | Supplemental Material
Journal Article Open

Does Oxytocin Increase Trust in Humans? A Critical Review of Research

Abstract

Behavioral neuroscientists have shown that the neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) plays a key role in social attachment and affiliation in nonhuman mammals. Inspired by this initial research, many social scientists proceeded to examine the associations of OT with trust in humans over the past decade. To conduct this work, they have (a) examined the effects of exogenous OT increase caused by intranasal administration on trusting behavior, (b) correlated individual difference measures of OT plasma levels with measures of trust, and (c) searched for genetic polymorphisms of the OT receptor gene that might be associated with trust. We discuss the different methods used by OT behavioral researchers and review evidence that links OT to trust in humans. Unfortunately, the simplest promising finding associating intranasal OT with higher trust has not replicated well. Moreover, the plasma OT evidence is flawed by how OT is measured in peripheral bodily fluids. Finally, in recent large-sample studies, researchers failed to find consistent associations of specific OT-related genetic polymorphisms and trust. We conclude that the cumulative evidence does not provide robust convergent evidence that human trust is reliably associated with OT (or caused by it). We end with constructive ideas for improving the robustness and rigor of OT research.

Additional Information

© 2015 The Author(s). Colin Camerer acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation and the Behavioral and Neuroeconomics Discovery Fund (California Institute of Technology). Michael McCullough acknowledges support from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the John Templeton Foundation. We thank Jorge Barraza, Thomas Baumgartner, Allison E. Gaffey, Keith M. Kendrick, Anthony Lane, Moira Mikolajczak, Michelle M. Wirth, and Kevin (Shuxia) Yao for generously and rapidly sharing their data. We also thank Elizabeth Beaver and Robert Glaser for research assistance. Finally, we thank Tom Cunningham, Anna Dreber Almenberg, Ernst Fehr, Philipp Koellinger, and David Sbarra for useful comments on earlier versions of this article. Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The authors declared that they had no conflicts of interest with respect to their authorship or the publication of this article.

Attached Files

Supplemental Material - NaveOxytocin_appendix.pdf

Files

NaveOxytocin_appendix.pdf
Files (45.1 kB)
Name Size Download all
md5:8763ffe4a53748c0996185a386dc1dfc
45.1 kB Preview Download

Additional details

Created:
August 20, 2023
Modified:
October 25, 2023