Oxytocin is often called the “love hormone” because it facilitates social relationships: but what if we told you that this isn’t always the case? According to what was discovered in a study published in Translational Psychiatry oxytocin would increase the altruism of those who had a difficult childhood, but would sharply reduce the generosity of those who had a happy childhood. What causes this apparently paradoxical result?
The scholars wanted to understand how the experiences we live during childhood modify (if at all) our generosity as adults, and whether oxytocin, considered the hormone of sociability, had different effects on altruistic decisions. They therefore involved 54 healthy men with an average age of around 25 years, and randomly administered them a nasal spray containing oxytocin or one containing a placebo. After forty minutes they asked them to make donations, while simultaneously monitoring their brain activity.
Evidence of generosity
Each participant was given a “piggy bank” of 60 euros: after viewing 60 profiles of people on a screen, 40 of which corresponded to strangers in need and another 20 to strangers without particular difficulties, the volunteers had to decide whether and how much to donate to each profile, from zero to one euro, in 15 seconds each. The money donated was deducted from their final reward.
Among the volunteers who had taken the placebo, those who had had a difficult childhood donated on average only 8.22 euros, compared to 20 euros for those who had had a peaceful childhood. Oxytocin, however, had a totally unexpected effect: in those who had lived a childhood full of adversity, it contributed to increasing generosity, bringing the donation from 8.22 to 15.68 euros on average; on the contrary, those who had lived the first years of life peacefully became less generous after the effect of the hormone, going from 20 to 9.46 euros in average donations. “Our results challenge the widespread idea of considering oxytocin simply as the ‘love hormone'”, Nina Marsh, coordinator of the research, comments to Psypost.
The role of oxytocin
Oxytocin, alone, does not make us more open and good towards others: the direction and intensity of our behavior are influenced by individual characteristics, environmental factors and life experiences.
According to the authors, oxytocin acts by regulating a person’s sensitivity to social signals based on their starting level: those who have already reduced sensitivity due to a difficult childhood could become more attentive to others; those who, on the contrary, are already sensitive to the needs of others, could become too sensitive with additional oxytocin, generating hesitation and reducing the willingness to donate.
What happens in the brain?
Brain scans revealed that in the placebo group, the medial prefrontal cortex, which puts us in other people’s shoes and regulates emotions, and the middle cingulate cortex, which helps detect socially useful information, were more connected, and that this connection coincided with smaller donations. With oxytocin, the connection weakened, and donations increased. This indicates that altruism is not just a psychological trait, but is rooted in the architecture of the brain and the way different regions communicate with each other.
