Your word is my command: Oxytocin facilitates the understanding of appeal in verbal communication

Abstract

The hormone oxytocin is known to facilitate positive communication behaviors. In the current study, we aimed to examine how it affects the interpretation of verbal information during communication. We predicted oxytocin to promote the understanding of the socially most effortful dimension of appeal. After intranasal administration of oxytocin or a placebo, participants responded to a “four-ear communication” questionnaire. Results revealed that participants under oxytocin not only chose the dimension of appeal as first choice significantly more often than participants under placebo but also preferred it over most of the other dimensions of interpretation. The findings add to our knowledge of oxytocin as a facilitator of social approach and indicate how oxytocin might work in communicative settings.