OXTR Gene DNA Methylation Levels Are Associated with Discounting Behavior with Untrustworthy Proposers

Abstract

Individual differences in temporal and probabilistic discounting are associated with a wide range of life outcomes in literature. Traditional approaches have focused on impulsiveness and cognitive control skills, on goal-oriented personality traits as well as on the psychological perception of time. More recently, literature started to consider the role of social and contextual factors in discounting behavior. Between others, higher generalized trust in human beings and specific trust in people who will deliver the future/probabilistic rewards have been related to a stronger willingness to wait and to assume risk. Moreover, the tendency to trust others has been associated with the oxytocin receptor gene regulation that can be modified by life experiences. In this perspective, we hypothesized that differences in the tendency to wait and to take risks for a more desirable reward according to the proposer’s trustworthiness could be related to a different level of DNA methylation at the oxytocin receptor gene. Findings confirmed that participants are less willing to wait and to risk when the proposer is considered highly untrustworthy and revealed how higher oxytocin receptor gene DNA methylation is associated with a stronger effect due to the presence of an untrustworthy proposer. Limits and future directions are outlined.

Face Mask Reduces the Effect of Proposer’s (Un)Trustworthiness on Intertemporal and Risky Choices

“…For both task, participants were also presented choice items in “proposer” blocks, which provided a face stimulus and were asked to imagine that the showed face was the person proposing the choice between the two options while having no role in potential money delivery (see Figure 1 ). The used facial stimuli were manipulated for gender (male and female) and for perceived trustworthiness level (trustworthy, neutral, and untrustworthy) resulting in six different blocks (for a similar procedure, see Anzani et al, 2022 ). Order of presentation of the seven blocks was randomized as well as items’ order within each block.…”

“…Also, others’ perceived untrustworthiness can also feel like a danger, triggering unpleasant feelings that impact intertemporal and risk decisions ( Harris, 2012 ; Koppel et al, 2017 ). By the way, in a recent paper on adult samples, it was not only reported that proposer’s facial perceived untrustworthiness is associated with higher temporal discounting rate therefore indicating lower preference toward reward’s postponing, but also that the same effect applies to subjects’ probability discounting, for which participants were asked to choose between smaller sure and larger but risky options and were aware that reward delivery system was based on randomness ( Anzani et al, 2022 ). This evidence indicating a lower propensity toward risk taking with untrustworthy proposers, even if in need of replication, seems to suggest the possibility that this effect of untrustworthiness on decision-making may be sustained by a more domain-independent and less deliberative underlying process than ever thought before.…”

“…Similarly, in another work, authors reported a similar result also showing that reduced trustworthiness effect for masked stimuli was stronger for those participants who thought that mask had a poorer protecting capability and felt more burdened when wearing it ( Biermann et al, 2021 ). Following this line of reasoning, it can be hypothesized that when faced with an (already) untrustworthy proposer wearing a mask, an augmented effect on decision-maker’s discounting behavior should be detected (i.e., a higher shift toward immediate and sure options as compared to results reported by Anzani et al, 2022 ). On the other side, it was recently shown that wearing mask affects other perceived features, for example, it increases perceived attractiveness for both male and female stimuli ( Hies and Lewis, 2022 ; Parada-Fernández et al, 2022 ).…”

“…On the other side, it was recently shown that wearing mask affects other perceived features, for example, it increases perceived attractiveness for both male and female stimuli ( Hies and Lewis, 2022 ; Parada-Fernández et al, 2022 ). Therefore, as attractiveness have been reported to increase perceived trustworthiness ( Pandey and Zayas, 2021 ) and trustworthiness have been proved to influence decision-making outcomes (e.g., Jaeger et al, 2019 ; Qi et al, 2021 ; Anzani et al, 2022 ), it can also be hypothesized that, through an indirect effect due to increased perceived attractiveness (already) untrustworthiness proposers are perceived as less untrustworthy and, therefore, a reduced effect on decision-maker’s discounting behavior should be detected. To deeper explore this phenomenon and investigate whether the presence of surgical mask produce a change on the effect of proposer’s trustworthiness on decision-making and to which extent, in the current work, we replicated the experimental procedure proposed by Anzani et al (2022) and conducted two separate experiments (experiment A investigating delay discounting and experiment B investigating probability discounting) after manipulating proposer’s stimuli to which a face surgical mask was applied.…”

Interdisciplinary Approach to Biological and Health Implications in Selected Professional Competences

“…Oxytocin plays an important role in forming social habits such as attachments (as between a mother and child) [ 140 ], in expressing optimism and self-appreciation, and in reducing levels of aggression, fear, and stress [ 141 ], and in trust-building. A medication based on oxytocin is often administered to people who suffered child abuse to restore social bonds and the ability to trust [ 142 , 143 ]. During a test when subjects were administered doses of oxytocin, these subjects perceived faces displayed to them in photographs as being relatively friendlier and more attractive compared to subjects from the control group, who administered a placebo [ 144 ].…”