Encourage social bonding or go off the script? Hormone oxytocin influences cooperative interactions
The Love Hormone's Impact on Teamwork: Oxytocin and Cooperation
Known as the "love hormone," oxytocin plays a crucial role in regulating social and sexual interactions, including cooperation within teams. This hormone, once associated primarily with romantic and mother-infant bonding, has recently caught the attention of scientists studying teamwork.
Researchers, including Jennifer McClung, Zegni Triki, and colleagues from the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland, have been pondering the puzzling yet intriguing human ability to both cooperate with others and withdraw cooperation. But what factors influence this behavior? How do we decide to play as a team or strike out on our own?
The researchers chose to focus on one factor: our natural oxytocin levels. Oxytocin is a key hormone and neurotransmitter that can significantly affect our choices about cooperation. In a study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the team explored how oxytocin can impact our decision to cooperate and the conversations we have with our teammates.
McClung says, "For the first time, we have analyzed the natural intervention of this hormone in spontaneous cooperation and conversation between people."
Unraveling Cooperation with an 'Egg Hunt'
To observe participants' behaviors, McClung and her team set up an "egg hunt" experiment. Paired participants were tasked with searching for eggs containing red and blue-colored screws. Each player could receive a reward of one Swiss franc for all the red screws collected or one Swiss franc for all the blue screws.
The researchers also assigned participants to one of two groups: "apple" or "orange," which could create a sense of allegiance among participants in the same group. During the hunt, players could choose to cooperate with their partner or go solo.
Oxytocin and In-Group Cooperation
To understand oxytocin's impact on cooperation, the researchers measured each participant's natural levels of the hormone in saliva samples. Interestingly, they found that people with higher levels of oxytocin were more likely to collaborate spontaneously, but there was a catch. This heightened cooperation was more likely among people who shared the same group.
"High levels of oxytocin have no impact on two people affiliated with different groups," explains McClung. "Even if they have high levels of oxytocin, people from different groups preferred to hunt alone rather than share each other's goals and help each other."
When it came to conversations between partners, researchers observed that players with high levels of oxytocin spoke less about individual goals with their partners when they belonged to the same group. Discussions centered more around the other's goal, such as "you collect your red screws," but without offering assistance or joining in the pursuit.
For those in different groups, even if they had higher levels of oxytocin, they still focused more on individual goals in their conversations.
The researchers believe these results suggest that oxytocin can help strengthen social cues to support socially appropriate behavior and maintain cooperation between individuals with the same affiliation.
These findings deepen our understanding of oxytocin's role in team settings, revealing that its impact on cooperation is heavily influenced by group affiliation and often leads to favoritism towards in-group members over out-group cooperation. This raises questions about the role of oxytocin in promoting cross-group cooperation and its potential implications in diverse social contexts.
[Enrichment Data attribution: Newman, J. A., & Huntington-Williams, R. (2017). The social functions of oxytocin. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1371(1), 66-72.]
- Psychology, neurology, and biochemistry have been used to study oxytocin, a hormone associated with cooperation within teams and previously linked to romantic and mother-infant bonding.
- Researchers have been investigating factors that influence cooperation and the decision to play as a team or go solo, focusing on natural oxytocin levels.
- The researchers found that individuals with higher levels of oxytocin are more likely to cooperate spontaneously, but this effect is more pronounced among those with the same group affiliation.
- Oxytocin appears to support socially appropriate behavior and maintain cooperation among in-group members, which could potentially lead to favoritism towards them over out-group cooperation.
- The results deepen our understanding of oxytocin's role in team settings, particularly in diverse social contexts, raising questions about its potential implications for promoting cross-group cooperation.
- This study is part of the mental-health and health-and-wellness field, contributing to the scientific understanding of mental health and social behavioral aspects.
