An international team of scientists has found that oxytocin can increase trust levels in men prone to suspicion. In an experiment involving 359 volunteers, administration of the hormone increased willingness to trust strangers with money by 15%, reports infohub.kz.
Researchers from the University of Zurich, led by Ernst Fehr, together with colleagues from Germany and Belgium, presented results of a large-scale study on oxytocin's effects on social behavior. The experiment involved 359 men who had previously been identified as having a low baseline level of trust in others.
Participants received either oxytocin or a placebo, then played an anonymous financial game where they had to entrust money to a stranger. Men with low trust propensity who received the hormone transferred on average 15% more money to partners than participants in the control group. Analysis accounting for past tests showed the increase rose to 17%.
The authors emphasize that oxytocin acts selectively and does not make everyone more trusting. The researchers plan to continue studies to determine the exact biological mechanisms of this process and to check whether a similar effect occurs in women.