Sniffing submissiveness? Oxytocin administration in severe psychopathy

Would you? Effects of oxytocin on moral choices in forensic psychopathic patients

“…As the current study was part of a larger study in this group of psychopathic patients, we refer for an extensive description of additional requirements for participation in this larger study to Rijnders and colleagues [ 63 ]. In short, inclusion criteria were male sex, good physical health, age between 18 and 60 years, and a total IQ of 80 or above.…”

Steroid hormones and severity of psychopathy in forensic patients.

“…The 20 psychopathic patients participated in a larger study in which they had to perform computer tasks measuring emotion recognition, facial mimicry of dynamic emotional expressions (which was measured with facial electromyography) moral dilemma’s, as well as dominance (for this latter substudy using eyetracking, see: Rijnders et al, 2021). With these tasks no stress elevation was sought.…”

“…In one test session they sniffed a nasal spray with either a total of 24 International Units of the synthetic version of oxytocin (registered product name Syntocinon ® ) or physiological saline (NaCl; quality label PH.EUR; BUFA, Spruyt Hillen, the Netherlands). The results of oxytocin intervention on the different tasks of the larger study will be published elsewere (e.g., Rijnders et al, 2021). Participants were instructed to refrain from cigarette smoking and consuming caffeinated beverages at least one hour prior to the start of the test session.…”