Oxytocin seen as love hormone

Report published in Journal of Harmones and Bhaviours rates oxytocin, a generous chemical to make relationships and see people in positive light. Oxytocin is best known for cementing the bond between a mother and her newborn child. However, this could also turn out to be a social hormone helping people select them a right mate or partner. This new study shows that men and women who inhale a whiff of the hormone oxytocin rate strangers as more attractive.

Angeliki Theodoridou, a psychologist at the University of Bristol, UK, who led the new study suggests, “This effect adds to the hormone’s known role in human relationships.” Another study found that oxytocin levels spike after new mothers look at or touch their newborns and may help bonding.

Some more work in this line has hinted about the importance of oxytocin in social situations between adults too. People administered the hormone make overly generous offer in an economic game that measures trust, while men who got a dose of oxytocin were better at remembering the faces of strangers a day later, compared to the subjects who got a placebo.

In the latest trial, Theodoridou’s team tested 96 men and women in a double-blind placebo-controlled trial. No matter their sex or mood, volunteers who received oxytocin rated male and female strangers as both more attractive and trusting.

Theodoridou’s study did not examine how oxytocin could affect social judgements, but she speculates that the hormone dampens brain activity in a region involved in processing fearful emotions, called the amygdala. A previous study found that oxytocin tempered amygdala activation in volunteers who saw a face that had previously been paired with a slight shock.

“Theodoridou’s study suggests that oxytocin acts similarly on men and women when rating strangers, but sex differences could emerge in real-world situations”, says Jennifer Bartz, a psychologist at Mount Sinai Medical School in New York. More research is needed to see if this is the case.

On pragmatic notes, entrepreneurs are already trying to make a buck off of oxytocin’s social effects. One company offers a spray that claims to engender trust in others, though it offers little more than testimonials as evidence that it works. However, Theodoridou doesn’t endorse the same.