The (Null) Effect of Affective Touch on Betrayal Aversion, Altruism, and Risk Taking

Abstract

Pleasant touch is thought to increase the release of oxytocin. Oxytocin, in turn, has been extensively studied with regards to its effects on trust and prosocial behavior, but results remain inconsistent. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of touch on economic decision making. Participants (n = 120) were stroked on their left arm using a soft brush (touch condition) or not at all (control condition; varied within subjects), while they performed a series of decision tasks assessing betrayal aversion (the Betrayal Aversion Elicitation Task), altruism (donating money to a charitable organization), and risk taking (the Balloon Analog Risk Task). We found no significant effect of touch on any of the outcome measures, neither within nor between subjects. Furthermore, effects were not moderated by gender or attachment. However, attachment avoidance had a significant effect on altruism in that those who were high in avoidance donated less money. Our findings contribute to the understanding of affective touch—and, by extension, oxytocin—in social behavior, and decision making by showing that touch does not directly influence performance in tasks involving risk and prosocial decisions. Specifically, our work casts further doubt on the validity of oxytocin research in humans.

Slow touch targeting CT-fibres does not increase prosocial behaviour in economic laboratory tasks

“…To our knowledge, previous studies investigating the effect of touch on prosocial behaviour in economic games are scarce 15 , 45 , 46 . One recent study compared the effect of vibratory touch, an auditory cue or silence on behaviour in the Ultimatum game 45 .…”

Sensory Stimulation of Oxytocin Release Is Associated With Stress Management and Maternal Care

“…As pleasant touch increases the release of OT (Uvnas-Moberg et al, 1993 ), the pathophysiological effects of OT has been extensively studied with regard to its effects on mental activities and prosocial behavior (Koppel et al, 2017 ).…”

Punishing or helping: The influence of acute stress onthird-party decision-making

“…前人关于应激与 道德决策的不一致的研究可能是由于各异的亲社会行 为考察范式. 例如信任游戏里的投资行为就存在纯粹 信任与背叛厌恶之间的混淆 [23,24] . 此外, 最后通牒游戏 里拒绝不公平的分配通常被解读为一种有代价的亲社 会行为 [25] , 然而也有研究发现这种拒绝不公平的趋势 与个体在其他游戏里(独裁者游戏、信任游戏、囚徒 困境博弈)展现的亲社会行为无关 [26] .…”