Oxytocin Selectively Improves Empathic Accuracy

Bartz, Jennifer A.; Zaki, Jamil; Bolger, Niall; Hollander, Eric; Ludwig, Natasha N; Kolevzon, Alexander; Ochsner, Kevin N.

doi:10.1177/0956797610383439

Cited by 390 publications

(306 citation statements)

References 15 publications

(20 reference statements)

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“…We often favor members of our own group over those from other groups (ie, ingroup favoritism; Tajfel et al, 1971;Arrow, 2007). Recent research has revealed that oxytocin, a neuropeptide that facilitates social affiliation and social cognition (Kosfeld et al, 2005;Bartz and Hollander, 2006;Bartz et al, 2010Bartz et al, , 2011a, motivates ingroup favoritism in social behavior (De Dreu, 2012;van IJzendoorn and Bakermans-Kranenburg, 2012). Intranasal administration of oxytocin (compared with placebo) enhanced ingroup favoritism in social trust (van IJzendoorn and BakermansKranenburg, 2012), empathy for pain (Sheng et al, 2013), and cooperation (De Dreu et al, 2010, 2011De Dreu, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Opposing Oxytocin Effects on Intergroup Cooperative Behavior in Intuitive and Reflective Minds

Liu

Rand

et al. 2015

Neuropsychopharmacol

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People often favor ingroup over outgroup members when choosing to cooperate. Such ingroup-favored cooperation is promoted by oxytocin-a neuropeptide shown to facilitate social cognition and that has emerged as a pharmacological target for treatments of social functioning deficits. The current study applied a dual-process model to investigate whether and how intuitive and reflective cognitive styles affect the oxytocin-motivated ingroup favoritism in cooperation. We examined oxytocin effects on ingroup favoritism in a double-blind, placebo-controlled between-subjects design where cognitive processing (intuition vs reflection) was experimentally manipulated in healthy Chinese males (n = 150). We also supplemented this experimental manipulation with an individual difference analysis by assessing participants' inclination toward intuition or reflection in daily life. Intranasal administration of oxytocin (vs placebo) increased ingroup favoritism among participants primed to be intuitive or those who preferred intuition in daily life. In contrast, oxytocin decreased ingroup favoritism in participants primed to rely on reflective thinking or those who preferred reflective decision-making in daily life. Our results demonstrate that oxytocin has distinct functional roles when different cognitive styles (ie, intuition vs reflection) are promoted during social cooperation in a group situation. Our findings have implications for oxytocin pharmacotherapy of social dysfunction in that whether the effects of oxytocin on social functioning are facilitative, debilitative, or null, depends on an individual's cognitive style.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Opposing Oxytocin Effects on Intergroup Cooperative Behavior in Intuitive and Reflective Minds

Liu

Rand

et al. 2015

Neuropsychopharmacol

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“…It is noteworthy that OT administration did not significantly improve social perception, given previous literature suggesting that OT administration enhances the accuracy of social perception (e.g., Bartz et al, 2010a) and performance on the RMET in particular (Domes et al, 2007;Feeser et al, 2015;Guastella et al, 2010), a task we also examined here. However, the effects of OT administration on social perception (and many other outcomes) are often highly context dependent (for review see Bartz et al, 2011;Van IJzendoorn and Bakermans-Kranenburg, 2012).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 71%

“…However, the effects of OT administration on social perception (and many other outcomes) are often highly context dependent (for review see Bartz et al, 2011;Van IJzendoorn and Bakermans-Kranenburg, 2012). Indeed, OT administration has been shown to have greater benefits for social cognition for individuals lower in social-emotional functioning and has generally been observed in male or clinical samples (e.g., Bartz et al, 2010a;Guastella et al, 2010), which may contribute to the lack of associations with the current gender-diverse and healthy sample. However, other work has recently failed to replicate this effect (Radke and de Bruijn, 2015) and our sample was reasonably well powered to detect effects of at least medium size, which have been observed in prior studies finding positive effects (e.g., Feeser et al, 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Initial work on OT administration suggested that it may promote more positive social behavior, such as greater trust and generosity (Kosfeld et al, 2005;Zak et al, 2007), and more accurate social perception (Bartz et al, 2010a;Domes et al, 2007;Guastella et al, 2010). There has been less examination of the effects of OT on cognitive processes, but one study found that OT administration promoted greater holistic thinking and creative performance, but decreased analytical reasoning (De Dreu et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is likely in part because the statistical power of OT administration studies tends to be very low and there are likely publication and reporting biases within the field (Lane et al, 2016;Walum et al, 2016), but may also be in part because the effects of OT administration may be highly context-dependent (Bartz et al, 2011;Bakermans-Kranenburg and Van IJzendoorn, 2013;Guastella and MacLeod, 2012;Van IJzendoorn and Bakermans-Kranenburg, 2012). For example, OT administration has been shown to selectively improve the accuracy of social perception for men who are less socially proficient (Bartz et al, 2010a) and on more difficult social perception items (Domes et al, 2007). There is also evidence that OT administration is more beneficial for people with alexithymia (Luminet et al, 2011), autism and Asperger's disorders (Andari et al, 2010;Guastella et al, 2010;Hollander et al, 2007), and schizophrenia (Woolley et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Combining oxytocin administration and positive emotion inductions: Examining social perception and analytical performance

Human

Thorson

Woolley

et al. 2017

Hormones and Behavior

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a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f oIntranasal administration of the hypothalamic neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) has, in some studies, been associated with positive effects on social perception and cognition. Similarly, positive emotion inductions can improve a range of perceptual and performance-based behaviors. In this exploratory study, we examined how OT administration and positive emotion inductions interact in their associations with social and analytical performance. Participants (N = 124) were randomly assigned to receive an intranasal spray of OT (40 IU) or placebo and then viewed one of three videos designed to engender one of the following emotion states: social warmth, pride, or an affectively neutral state. Following the emotion induction, participants completed social perception and analytical tasks. There were no significant main effects of OT condition on social perception tasks, failing to replicate prior research, or on analytical performance. Further, OT condition and positive emotion inductions did not interact with each other in their associations with social perception performance. However, OT condition and positive emotion manipulations did significantly interact in their associations with analytical performance. Specifically, combining positive emotion inductions with OT administration was associated with worse analytical performance, with the pride induction no longer benefiting performance and the warmth induction resulting in worse performance. In sum, we found little evidence for main or interactive effects of OT on social perception but preliminary evidence that OT administration may impair analytical performance when paired with positive emotion inductions.

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