Oxytocin-enforced norm compliance reduces xenophobic outgroup rejection

Abstract

Never before have individuals had to adapt to social environments defined by such magnitudes of ethnic diversity and cultural differentiation. However, neurobiological evidence informing about strategies to reduce xenophobic sentiment and foster altruistic cooperation with outsiders is scarce. In a series of experiments settled in the context of the current refugee crisis, we tested the propensity of 183 Caucasian participants to make donations to people in need, half of whom were refugees (outgroup) and half of whom were natives (ingroup). Participants scoring low on xenophobic attitudes exhibited an altruistic preference for the outgroup, which further increased after nasal delivery of the neuropeptide oxytocin. In contrast, participants with higher levels of xenophobia generally failed to exhibit enhanced altruism toward the outgroup. This tendency was only countered by pairing oxytocin with peer-derived altruistic norms, resulting in a 74% increase in refugee-directed donations. Collectively, these findings reveal the underlying sociobiological conditions associated with outgroup-directed altruism by showing that charitable social cues cooccurring with enhanced activity of the oxytocin system reduce the effects of xenophobia by facilitating prosocial behavior toward refugees.altruism | ingroup | outgroup | oxytocin | refugees

Oxytocin reduces a chemosensory-induced stress bias in social perception

“…Furthermore, an important translational implication arising from our findings is that individuals with anxiety disorders who exhibit deficient recruitment of top-down control [47] and increased stimulus-driven attention [48] may benefit from OXT treatment. Given the strong context dependency of OXT effects [49], future research is needed to delineate the pathophysiology of this mechanism in the context of stress-related chemosignals and to investigate whether interventions with OXT normalize a pathological hypersensitivity towards stress-related chemosignals in anxiety disorders.…”

The Social Neuroscience of Prejudice

“…In the context of the refugee crisis, one study tested the relative effects of peer-driven norms of altruism and oxytocin administration on resource allocations to refugees (Marsh et al, 2017). Their results were moderated by participants' xenophobia: low xenophobia participants were more inclined to help refugees than natives, and oxytocin to these participants increased donations for both groups.…”

Role of oxytocin in the control of stress and food intake

“…Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the actions of oxytocin in an integrative way. 245 On the other hand, oxytocin has also been shown in humans to evoke antisocial behaviours in competitive situations 246 and to induce defensive aggression toward out-group members. 244 Oxytocin paired with charitable social cues has been shown in humans to reduce out-group rejection even in xenophobic individuals, although the effects of oxytocin appear to be dependent on the experimental conditions.…”

“…244 Oxytocin paired with charitable social cues has been shown in humans to reduce out-group rejection even in xenophobic individuals, although the effects of oxytocin appear to be dependent on the experimental conditions. 245 On the other hand, oxytocin has also been shown in humans to evoke antisocial behaviours in competitive situations 246 and to induce defensive aggression toward out-group members. 247 Intranasal oxytocin application has also been shown to facilitate startle response to threatening stimuli in humans, consistent with the view that oxytocin increases the salience of threatening stimuli.…”