RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Oxytocin Modulates Social Distance between Males and Females
JF The Journal of Neuroscience
JO J. Neurosci.
FD Society for Neuroscience
SP 16074
OP 16079
DO 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2755-12.2012
VO 32
IS 46
A1 Dirk Scheele
A1 Nadine Striepens
A1 Onur Güntürkün
A1 Sandra Deutschländer
A1 Wolfgang Maier
A1 Keith M. Kendrick
A1 René Hurlemann
YR 2012
UL http://www.jneurosci.org/content/32/46/16074.abstract
AB In humans, interpersonal romantic attraction and the subsequent development of monogamous pair-bonds is substantially predicted by influential impressions formed during first encounters. The prosocial neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) has been identified as a key facilitator of both interpersonal attraction and the formation of parental attachment. However, whether OXT contributes to the maintenance of monogamous bonds after they have been formed is unclear. In this randomized placebo-controlled trial, we provide the first behavioral evidence that the intranasal administration of OXT stimulates men in a monogamous relationship, but not single ones, to keep a much greater distance (∼10–15 cm) between themselves and an attractive woman during a first encounter. This avoidance of close personal proximity occurred in the physical presence of female but not male experimenters and was independent of gaze direction and whether the female experimenter or the subject was moving. We further confirmed this unexpected finding using a photograph-based approach/avoidance task that showed again that OXT only stimulated men in a monogamous relationship to approach pictures of attractive women more slowly. Importantly, these changes cannot be attributed to OXT altering the attitude of monogamous men toward attractive women or their judgments of and arousal by pictures of them. Together, our results suggest that where OXT release is stimulated during a monogamous relationship, it may additionally promote its maintenance by making men avoid signaling romantic interest to other women through close-approach behavior during social encounters. In this way, OXT may help to promote fidelity within monogamous human relationships.