Abstract
Studies have linked oxytocin to emotional theory of mind (eToM) — the ability to recognise and understand others' emotions. However, multiple replications have so far failed to reach a consistent result. Growing evidence suggests that oxytocin's positive effects on social-emotional tasks such as eToM are highly dependent on trait-level individual differences. In the present study, we theorised that socioeconomic status (SES) could influence oxytocin's impact on emotional mentalising processes. We tested our hypothesis in a double-blind between–subjects oxytocin nasal spray study on 147 Caucasian white male participants in the United Kingdom. In accordance with our hypothesis, we found that oxytocin (as compared to placebo) did boost emotional theory of mind, but only in people from low subjective SES backgrounds. Our results expand existing theory on how individual differences moderate oxytocin's role on social behaviours.
Highlights
Oxytocin, a neuropeptide synthesized in the hypothalamus, has generated substantial interest in psychology as well as within the popular press as a potential biological substrate of social processes
The inconsistencies in results could be partly explained by the fact that studies have used small sample sizes, a variety of tasks, and looked at a set of diverse populations, Bartz et al (2011) proposed that the main reason for non-replicable effects in the oxytocin literature might be because trait-level individual differences (Bartz et al, 2011)
The present study aimed to 1) use a large sample to add to the literature on oxytocin's effect on emotional theory of mind (eToM), and 2) explore the societal-shaped individual difference – socioeconomic status (SES) – as a moderator in this effect
Summary
A neuropeptide synthesized in the hypothalamus, has generated substantial interest in psychology as well as within the popular press as a potential biological substrate of social processes (see Bartz et al, 2011, for review). The literature suggests that individuals low in SES find themselves rife to benefit more from oxytocin than their high SES counterparts: Low SES individuals have greater needs and motivation for paying attention to socially salient cues, yet on average show lower ability to do so than higher SES people. Testing the moderating effect of SES on oxytocin's influence on socioemotional tasks has great importance: Unlike well-established personaltrait individual difference such as empathy, SES is a complex social concept representing one's social role and obtained social capital (Bradley and Corwyn, 2002) If this societal-shaped concept moderated oxytocin's influence on socio-emotional tasks, it would expand existing understanding on how oxytocin functions on social tasks and may help explain inconsistent results in the literature. Hoping to resolve some of the inconsistencies reported in the literature, we recruited a large number of participants (n 1⁄4 147) to reach 80% power, which most studies in the literature have not (Faul et al, 2007)
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