Oxytocin promotes attention to social cues regardless of group membership
Abstract
The social saliency account proposes that oxytocin (OT) plays a major role in modulating attentional shifts toward social cues at early stages of processing. We investigated how OT promotes early attention toward nonsocial and social stimuli and explored differences between in-group- and out-group-related social cues. After participants intranasally self-administered OT or placebo, they were eye-tracked while observing a nonsocial and social cues that were assigned to the in- or out-group by a minimal group paradigm. Participants under placebo did not differ in their fixation durations between stimuli, whereas participants administered OT increased gaze durations toward social but not nonsocial stimuli. In this early stage of processing, no in-group bias occurred: in-group- and out-group-related social cues were fixated equally long. These findings support that OT works by a simple illumination of social cues that seem to be processed regardless of social identity aspects at early stages of attention.
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IN-OXT has been shown in an increasing number of studies to change social visual attention in non-clinical populations of humans.
“IN-OXT has also been shown in an increasing number of studies to change social visual attention in non-clinical populations of humans77–81.”
From Effect of age and autism spectrum disorder on oxytocin receptor density in the human basal forebrain and midbrain (2018) · cites this paper as [79]
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- Authors
- Pfundmair, M., Zwarg, C., Paulus, M., & Rimpel, A.
- Affiliations
- Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Pfundmair, Michaela
- Venue
- Hormones and Behavior
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2017-04
- Volume
- 90
- Pages
- 136-140
- ISSN
- 0018-506X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2597672229
- Cited by
- 23
- References
- 41
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 6
- FWCI
- 4.70
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Hormones and Behavior (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Sensory Systems › Olfactory and Sensory Function Studies
- Keywords
- oxytocin, social attention, in-group favoritism, out-group bias, social identity, minimal group paradigm, gaze duration, eye tracking, intranasal administration, early visual processing
- MeSH terms
- Administration, Intranasal, Adult, Attention, Cues, Double-Blind Method, Female, Humans, Male, Oxytocin, Peer Group, Photic Stimulation, Placebos, Social Environment, Young Adult, Emotional Intelligence
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