Abstract
Oxytocin has been implicated in a variety of prosocial processes but most of this work has used laboratory tasks (such as the ultimatum game or the dictator game) to evaluate oxytocin’s prosocial effects. In a double blind randomized trial we examined the influence of intranasal administration of oxytocin on real, high-cost donating money to a charity without any expectation for reciprocation. Participants in the current study were 57 female undergraduate students, aged 18–30 years, who received a nasal spray containing either 24 IU of oxytocin or a placebo, and were then given the opportunity to make a charitable donation. The participants reported how often their parents used love-withdrawal as a disciplinary strategy involving withholding love and affection after a failure or misbehavior. Oxytocin appeared to increase the participants’ willingness to donate money to a charity but only in participants who experienced low levels of parental love-withdrawal. In contrast, oxytocin administration was ineffective in enhancing donating behavior in individuals who experienced high levels of parental love-withdrawal. We conclude that the positive effect of oxytocin administration on prosocial behavior may be limited to individuals with supportive backgrounds.
Highlights
Oxytocin has been implicated in a variety of prosocial processes but most of this work has used social dilemma type tasks to evaluate oxytocin’s prosocial effects
The first aim of the current study is to investigate the influence of oxytocin on real, high-cost donating to charity (UNICEF) without a gamelike dimension
We studied the influence of oxytocin on real, high-cost donating to charity without a game-like dimension with chances of reciprocation or compensation, and examined the moderating role of experienced parental love-withdrawal
Summary
Oxytocin has been implicated in a variety of prosocial processes but most of this work has used social dilemma type tasks to evaluate oxytocin’s prosocial effects (for a review, see Bartz et al, 2011). Parental use of love-withdrawal has been associated with low self-esteem and low emotional well-being, which may hamper empathic concern and donating behavior. To our knowledge this is the first randomized trial examining the influence of intranasal administration of oxytocin on donating money to a charity that takes participants’ experiences of parental discipline into account as a potential moderator
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