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Does Oxytocin Increase Trust in Humans? A Critical Review of Research
Abstract
Behavioral neuroscientists have shown that the neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) plays a key role in social attachment and affiliation in nonhuman mammals. Inspired by this initial research, many social scientists proceeded to examine the associations of OT with trust in humans over the past decade. To conduct this work, they have (a) examined the effects of exogenous OT increase caused by intranasal administration on trusting behavior, (b) correlated individual difference measures of OT plasma levels with measures of trust, and (c) searched for genetic polymorphisms of the OT receptor gene that might be associated with trust. We discuss the different methods used by OT behavioral researchers and review evidence that links OT to trust in humans. Unfortunately, the simplest promising finding associating intranasal OT with higher trust has not replicated well. Moreover, the plasma OT evidence is flawed by how OT is measured in peripheral bodily fluids. Finally, in recent large-sample studies, researchers failed to find consistent associations of specific OT-related genetic polymorphisms and trust. We conclude that the cumulative evidence does not provide robust convergent evidence that human trust is reliably associated with OT (or caused by it). We end with constructive ideas for improving the robustness and rigor of OT research.
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In the citing paper
“Nave and colleagues [22] computed the effect sizes of seven studies that have investigated the effect of intranasal OT on trust trough the trust game. Their analysis revealed that the combined effect size of intranasal OT on trust was small and not reliably different from zero (Cohen’s d = 0.077, 95%CI: [-0.124;0.278]).”
From Failed Replication of Oxytocin Effects on Trust: The Envelope Task Case (2015) · cites this paper as [22]
In the citing paper
“The lack of a convincing theoretical framework that allows to predict which moderators exert their effects and when, has raised healthy skepticism regarding the robustness of human behavioral IN-OT research (20,21).”
From Is there a Publication Bias in Behavioural Intranasal Oxytocin Research on Humans? Opening the File Drawer of One Laboratory (2016) · cites this paper as [20]
In the citing paper
“the seminal, highly cited study associating IN-OT with trust (1), that inspired much of the subsequent research, failed several times to replicate (20).”
From Is there a Publication Bias in Behavioural Intranasal Oxytocin Research on Humans? Opening the File Drawer of One Laboratory (2016) · cites this paper as [20]
In the citing paper
“the use of too small samples (21) and the vast amount of candidate factors that could potentially moderate IN-OT's behavioral effects (19, 20) might inflate the false discovery rate unless direct replication efforts and correction for multiple hypotheses are applied.”
From Is there a Publication Bias in Behavioural Intranasal Oxytocin Research on Humans? Opening the File Drawer of One Laboratory (2016) · cites this paper as [20]
In the citing paper
“A concern in previous studies is that post hoc explorations of different modulations by individual differences risk inflating the rate of Type I errors 50 .”
From Oxytocin modulates social value representations in the amygdala (2019) · cites this paper as [50]
In the citing paper
“More specifically, Nave and colleagues 21 have raised doubt on the robustness of the oxytocin-trust association, pointing out that six studies failed to replicate the initial findings reported by Kosfeld et al. 8 .”
From A registered replication study on oxytocin and trust (2020) · cites this paper as [21]
In the citing paper
“The overarching link among studies of OXT and human cooperation is the role of OXT in enhancing group-level cooperation, though there is considerable debate about the robustness of these OXT studies (Leng & Ludwig, 2015; Nave, Camerer, & McCullough, 2015; Van IJzendoorn & Bakermans-Kranenburg, 2012; Walum, Waldman, & Young, 2015).”
From Inequity aversion strategies between marmosets are influenced by partner familiarity and sex but not by oxytocin (2016) · cites this paper as Nave, Camerer, & McCullough, 2015
In the citing paper
“However, several recent reviews identified relatively poor replicability within the OT literature (Nave et al., 2015; Leng and Ludwig, 2016; Walum et al., 2016), which partly arises from small sample sizes.”
From Oxytocin promotes altruistic punishment (2017) · cites this paper as Nave et al., 2015
In the citing paper
“For instance, a recent systematic review of the oxytocin literature found no evidence that trust behavior is associated with oxytocin (Nave et al., 2015).”
From Oxytocin promotes altruistic punishment (2017) · cites this paper as Nave et al., 2015
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“The associations between exogenous administration of oxytocin and trust have mainly been investigated by applying intranasal oxytocin and using different economic paradigms, such as the trust game (Nave et al., 2015; Zhu et al., 2019).”
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“Little by little, enzyme immunoassays became more prevalent than RIA due to their safety and ease of use, and for unknown reasons, extraction steps were also gradually abandoned by some researchers as highlighted by Dal Monte et al. (2014), McCullough et al. (2013), and Nave et al. (2015).”
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“…regarding the reproducibility of published findings in general (e.g., Open Science Collaboration, 2015), and within OT research particularly (e.g., Nave et al., 2015; Lane et al., 2016), we see the successful reproduction of our main finding across two samples from different cultures as a…”
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Leng, G., & Leng, R. (2021) · Journal of Neuroendocrinology · doi:10.1111/jne.13014 · Cited by 34
Interplay between the oxytocin and opioid systems in regulating social behaviour
Putnam, P. T., & Chang, S. W. C. (2022) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rstb.2021.0050 · Cited by 33
Deciphering the modulatory role of oxytocin in human altruism
Hurlemann, R., & Marsh, N. (2017) · Reviews in the Neurosciences · doi:10.1515/revneuro-2016-0061 · Cited by 31
A matter of distance—The effect of oxytocin on social discounting is empathy-dependent
Strang, S., Gerhardt, H., Marsh, N., Artigas, S. O., Hu, Y., Hurlemann, R., & Park, S. Q. (2017) · Psychoneuroendocrinology · doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2017.01.031 · Cited by 31
“Recently, the effects of intranasally administered OXT reported n the literature have been debated in the context of trust behavor (Nave et al., 2015), concerning the inconsistency in its effects.”
BackgroundThe Neuropeptide Oxytocin Enhances Information Sharing and Group Decision Making Quality
de Wilde, T. R. W., Velden, F. S. T., & Dreu, C. K. W. D. (2017) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/srep40622 · Cited by 32
“Although a recent meta-analysis revealed no overall effect of oxytocin on trust 39 , there is evidence that oxytocin does increase trust among individuals that are part of the same group and have are a common task to perform (For a review see ref.”
The Role of Intranasal Oxytocin on Social Cognition: an Integrative Human Lifespan Approach
Horta, M., Pehlivanoglu, D., & Ebner, N. C. (2020) · Current Behavioral Neuroscience Reports · doi:10.1007/s40473-020-00214-5 · Cited by 31
Fear, love, and the origins of canid domestication: An oxytocin hypothesis
Herbeck, Y. E., Eliava, M., Grinevich, V., & MacLean, E. L. (2021) · Comprehensive Psychoneuroendocrinology · doi:10.1016/j.cpnec.2021.100100 · Cited by 32
Lambert, B., Declerck, C. H., Boone, C., & Parizel, P. M. (2017) · Hormones and Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2017.06.011 · Cited by 30
“A first criticism is that OT rarely has a main effect on behaviour, but that it often interacts with one or more moderators (Lane et al., 2016; Nave et al., 2015).”
Oxytocin and the emergence of individual differences in the social regulation of stress
Chen, F. S., Heinrichs, M., & Johnson, S. C. (2017) · Social and Personality Psychology Compass · doi:10.1111/spc3.12332 · Cited by 31
Testosterone administration in human social neuroendocrinology: Past, present, and future
Carré, J. M., & Robinson, B. A. (2020) · Hormones and Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2020.104754 · Cited by 35
Generous to whom? The influence of oxytocin on social discounting
Pornpattananangkul, N., Zhang, J., Chen, Q., Kok, B. C., & Yu, R. (2017) · Psychoneuroendocrinology · doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2017.02.016 · Cited by 27
Motivated Attention and Reward in Parenting
Ferrey, A. E., Santascoy, N., McCrory, E. J. P., Thompson‐Booth, C., Mayes, L. C., & Rutherford, H. J. V. (2016) · Parenting · doi:10.1080/15295192.2016.1184928 · Cited by 31
The Topology of Communities of Trust
Alfano, M. (2016) · Sotsiologicheskoe Obozrenie / Russian Sociological Review · doi:10.17323/1728-192x-2016-4-30-56 · Cited by 27
Oxytocin promotes attention to social cues regardless of group membership
Pfundmair, M., Zwarg, C., Paulus, M., & Rimpel, A. (2017) · Hormones and Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2017.03.006 · Cited by 23
Oxytocin promotes altruistic punishment
Aydogan, G., Furtner, N. C., Kern, B., Jobst, A., Müller, N., & Kocher, M. G. (2017) · Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience · doi:10.1093/scan/nsx101 · Cited by 25
“However, several recent reviews identified relatively poor replicability within the OT literature (Nave et al., 2015; Leng and Ludwig, 2016; Walum et al., 2016), which partly arises from small sample sizes.”
Straccia, M. A., Teed, A. R., Katzman, P. L., Tan, K. M., Parrish, M. H., Irwin, M. R., Eisenberger, N. I., Lieberman, M. D., & Tabak, B. A. (2021) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291721004104 · Cited by 25
“Furthermore, failed replications (Declerck, Boone, Pauwels, Vogt, & Fehr, 2020; Nave, Camerer, & McCullough, 2015), a publication bias against null results (Lane, Luminet, Nave, & Mikolajczak, 2016; Tabak et al., 2019), and issues of statistical power have promoted uncertainty regarding all but the…”
BackgroundSanwald, S., Gahr, M., Widenhorn‐Müller, K., Schönfeldt‐Lecuona, C., Richter, K., Connemann, B. J., Kammer, T., Montag, C., & Kiefer, M. (2019) · Journal of Molecular Neuroscience · doi:10.1007/s12031-019-01446-1 · Cited by 24
“However, in humans, OTalso acts as a neuromodulator in neural networks associated with trust (Kosfeld et al. 2005; for replication problems, see Nave et al. 2015), empathy (Decety and Batson 2009), and sociality (Jack et al. 2012).”
BackgroundBeing a Dog: A Review of the Domestication Process
Tancredi, D., & Cardinali, I. (2023) · Genes · doi:10.3390/genes14050992 · Cited by 44
“It was observed that oxytocin seems to trigger an increase in social trust [47,48], modulate social attention and different aspects of social engagement, such as eye contact [49,50], and promote behavioral synchrony, which is critical for coordinating group actions [51,52].”
BackgroundKosaki, Y., & Watanabe, S. (2016) · Behavioral Neuroscience · doi:10.1037/bne0000139 · Cited by 28
Bernaerts, S., Berra, E., Wenderoth, N., & Alaerts, K. (2016) · Psychoneuroendocrinology · doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2016.07.002 · Cited by 24
“…Insel, 2010; Kendrick, 2000; ue Carter, 1998), but more recently, accumulating evidence also emonstrated a strong involvement of OT in promoting prosocial ehavior (Guastella and MacLeod, 2012), interpersonal bonding Hurlemann and Scheele, 2015) and trust in adult relationships Nave et al., 2015).”
Zimmermann, J., Deris, N., Montag, C., Reuter, M., Felten, A., Becker, B., Weber, B., & Markett, S. A. (2018) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.06.014 · Cited by 23
“Newer evidence, however, suggests that oxytocin effects might rely stronger on contextual factors than previously thought (Declerck et al., 2014; Nave et al., 2015).”
Association of the oxytocin receptor gene with attitudinal trust: role of amygdala volume
Nishina, K., Takagishi, H., Fermin, A. S. R., Inoue‐Murayama, M., Takahashi, H., Sakagami, M., & Yamagishi, T. (2018) · Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience · doi:10.1093/scan/nsy075 · Cited by 25
“However, as a more recent study argued that oxytocin has no effect on trust (Nave et al., 2015), the association between oxytocin and trust has attracted more attention in various fields, but needs further research to be fully understood.”
BackgroundWacewicz, S., & Żywiczyński, P. (2018) · Interaction Studies Social Behaviour and Communication in Biological and Artificial Systems · doi:10.1075/is.17031.wac · Cited by 25
Oxytocin Modulates the Cognitive Appraisal of the Own and Others Close Intimate Relationships
Aguilar‐Raab, C., Eckstein, M., Geracitano, S., Prévost, M., Gold, I., Heinrichs, M., Bilderbeck, A. C., Ehlert, U., & Ditzen, B. (2019) · Frontiers in Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnins.2019.00714 · Cited by 24
Quintana, D. S. (2021) · Psychoneuroendocrinology · doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2021.105642 · Cited by 22
Leng, G., & Leng, R. (2020) · The MIT Press eBooks · doi:10.7551/mitpress/12228.001.0001 · Cited by 25
An affective social tie mechanism: Theory, evidence, and implications
Bault, N., Fahrenfort, J. J., Pelloux, B., Ridderinkhof, K. R., & van Winden, F. A. A. M. (2017) · Journal of Economic Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.joep.2017.04.004 · Cited by 22
“Nave et al. (2015) on trust studies, and Walum et al. (2015) on statistical and methodological issues, more generally.”
BackgroundElectrophysiological correlates of oxytocin-induced enhancement of social performance monitoring
de Bruijn, E. R. A., Ruissen, M. I., & Radke, S. (2017) · Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience · doi:10.1093/scan/nsx094 · Cited by 21
Hall, K., Smith, M. F., Russell, J. L., Lambeth, S. P., Schapiro, S. J., & Brosnan, S. F. (2019) · Animal Behavior and Cognition · doi:10.26451/abc.06.01.04.2019 · Cited by 23
Enhancing models of social and strategic decision making with process tracing and neural data
Konovalov, A., & Ruff, C. C. (2021) · Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Cognitive Science · doi:10.1002/wcs.1559 · Cited by 20
Helping in humans and other animals: a fruitful interdisciplinary dialogue
Bshary, R., & Raihani, N. (2017) · Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rspb.2017.0929 · Cited by 24
The effect of testosterone on economic risk-taking: A multi-study, multi-method investigation
Stanton, S. J., Welker, K. M., Bonin, P. L., Goldfarb, B., & Carré, J. M. (2021) · Hormones and Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2021.105014 · Cited by 20
Romney, C. E., Hahn‐Holbrook, J., Norman, G. J., Moore, A., & Holt‐Lunstad, J. (2018) · International Journal of Psychophysiology · doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2018.08.010 · Cited by 20
Metadata
- Authors
- Nave, G., Camerer, C., & McCullough, M.
- Affiliations
- California Institute of Technology (US)
- University of Miami (US)
- Corresponding author
- Nave, Gideon
- Venue
- Perspectives on Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2015-11
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 772-789
- ISSN
- 1745-6916 (ISSN-L)
- 1745-6924
- OpenAlex
- W2189156543
- Semantic Scholar
- 3aadb7002f83415c5b398a6a122c7ce14599dc24
- Cited by
- 316
- References
- 178
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 24 · 2021: 44 · 2020: 51 · 2019: 44 · 2018: 27 · 2017: 48 · 2016: 23 · 2015: 2
- FWCI
- 3.29
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Perspectives on Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- CaltechAUTHORS (California Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Endocrine and Autonomic Systems › Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies
- Keywords
- oxytocin, trust, individual differences, replication, research rigor, social attachment, neuropeptides
- MeSH terms
- Administration, Intranasal, Genetic Markers, Humans, Oxytocin, Polymorphism, Genetic, Biomarkers, Receptors, Oxytocin, Trust
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