The Neuropeptide Oxytocin Regulates Parochial Altruism in Intergroup Conflict Among Humans

By C. D. De Dreu, Lindred L. Greer, Michel J. J. Handgraaf, Shaul Shalvi, Gerben A. van Kleef, Matthijs Baas, Femke S. Ten Velden, Eric van Dijk, S. W. W. Feith. Science, 2010

1,026 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Oxytocin and Intergroup Conflict Human society is organized into groups, such as those based on nationality or religion, which can lead to intergroup conflicts, with sometimes devastating consequences. Intergroup conflict engages a human behavior termed parochial altruism: For example, a soldier who fights against the enemy at risk to themselves to protect their country is a parochial altruist. De Dreu et al. (p. 1408; see the cover; see the News story by Miller) have discovered a role for oxytocin, a neuropeptide produced in the hypothalamus, in regulating parochial altruism during human intergroup competition and conflict. Oxytocin is already known to play a role in trusting behavior, and naturally occurring genetic variants of the oxytocin receptor exist within the human population. Administration of oxytocin modulated defense-related aggression toward competing groups, but did not affect unprovoked, hateful behavior. Thus, there may be a neurobiological basis for intergroup conflict in humans. A hypothalamic hormone modulates bonding within a group and defense-related aggression between competing groups. Humans regulate intergroup conflict through parochial altruism; they self-sacrifice to contribute to in-group welfare and to aggress against competing out-groups. Parochial altruism has distinct survival functions, and the brain may have evolved to sustain and promote in-group cohesion and effectiveness and to ward off threatening out-groups. Here, we have linked oxytocin, a neuropeptide produced in the hypothalamus, to the regulation of intergroup conflict. In three experiments using double-blind placebo-controlled designs, male participants self-administered oxytocin or placebo and made decisions with financial consequences to themselves, their in-group, and a competing out-group. Results showed that oxytocin drives a “tend and defend” response in that it promoted in-group trust and cooperation, and defensive, but not offensive, aggression toward competing out-groups.

Subfields: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/05ddc2665423e0d3042397aef9f460280f085e0b

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Citations in the corpus

“In-Group Love” and “Out-Group Hate” in Repeated Interaction Between Groups (2012, background): “…the payoffs to each in-group member by 1MU and decreases the payoff to each out-group member by 1MU; and a ‘‘within-group’’ pool which increases the payoffs to each in-group member by 1MU but has no effect on the out-group (see also: De Dreu et al., 2010; Halevy, Chou, Cohen, & Bornstein, 2010).”
Violent conflict and behavior: A field experiment in Burundi (2012, background): “Similarly, Kosfeld et al. (2005) show that altruism is regulated by the hormone oxytocin (OT), and de Dreu et al. (2010) find that OT not only influences within-group trust, but also stimulates aggression against competing “outsiders”—and hence OT may be the driver of parochial altruism (cf. Choi…”
The Neurobiology of Human Attachments. (2017, positive): “Second, the flip side of the neurobiology of affiliation is the neurobiology of intergroup conflict, racial bias, and tribal hatred, both activating the same ancient systems, which evolved to help organisms rapidly distinguish friend from foe [77].”
Neural Basis of Learning and Preference during Social Decision Making (2012, background): “Moreover, whether and how much the decision maker cares about the reward given to others is affected by a variety of neural and social factors [1-3].”
When the Love Hormone Leads to Violence (2014, methodology): “The interactionist perspective adopted here has helped resolve seeming discrepancies in the literature on the social effects of oxytocin in humans (see Bartz, Zaki, et al. 2011; De Dreu et al., 2010).”
Ingroup favoritism in cooperation: a meta-analysis. (2014, background): “…games provide evidence that high- compared to low-threat outgroups promote within-group cooperation and between-group competition especially among in- dividuals with strong tendencies toward ingroup favoritism (e.g., De Dreu et al., 2010; De Dreu, Shalvi, Greer, Van Kleef, & Handgraaf, 2012).”
A lifespan perspective on attachment and care for others: Empathy, altruism, and prosocial behavior (2016, neutral): “…& Levine, 2007; Young & Wang, 2004), parenting (Bakermans-Kranenburg & Van IJzendoorn, 2008; Feldman et al., 2012; Galbally, Lewis, Van IJzendoorn, & Permezel, 2011), empathy (Bartz et al., 2010; Hurlemann et al., 2010), and altruistic behavior (De Dreu et al., 2010; Zak, Stanton, & Ahmadi, 2007).”
Understanding Polarization: Meanings, Measures, and Model Evaluation (2017, result): “That such a mechanism alone can produce divergence does accord with some recent empirical research that indicates that in-group members can be drawn together without any demonstrable psychological out-group repulsion (Bicchieri 2006; Dreu et al. 2010, 2011).”
The Biology of Trust: Integrating Evidence From Genetics, Endocrinology, and Functional Brain Imaging (2012, result): “In line with this argumentation, a recent study by De Dreu et al. (2010) found that intranasal administration of OXT modulates trust toward members of one’s own group, but not toward members of competing out-groups.”
Oxytocin promotes human ethnocentrism (2011, methodology): “There is no doubt that oxytocin is implicated in the development of trust (10, 18), empathy, and prosociality (11), but these tendencies appear limited to individuals belonging to one’s in-group (16, 17).”
Evoked axonal oxytocin release in the central amygdala attenuates fear response. (2012, positive): “Because the role of OT in human psychopathology has become subject of many translational studies (De Dreu et al., 2010; Simeon et al., 2011; Skrundz et al., 2011), the experimental alteration in endogenous OT release may open the way to dissect OT-related pathogenic mechanisms underlying emotional…”