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The development of trust is an essential social tool, allowing people to form productive and meaningful relationships, both at a professional and personal level. Bonds of trust are also extremely fragile, however and a single act of betrayal—such as a marital affair—can instantly erase years of trustworthy behavior. The consequences of such breaches in confidence can be disastrous, and not only for a relationship. People who have been betrayed in the past will sometimes start avoiding future social interactions, which is a potential precursor to social phobia. In light of these connections, recent research has attempted to elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying trust behavior. This is the goal of an exciting new study by neuroscientist Thomas Baumgartner and colleagues at the University of Zurich in Switzerland that combines different disciplines (economics and neuroscience) and methodologies (neuroimaging and neuropharmacology) to investigate how the brain adapts to breaches of trust.
The Chemistry of Trust
To study social interactions, economists, and more recently neuroscientists, take advantage of a simple game played between two people called the “trust game.” (For more on greed and altruism, see this.) In a typical trust game, an investor (Player 1) is faced with a decision to keep a sum of money (say, $10) or share it with a trustee (Player 2). If shared, the investment is tripled ($30) and the trustee now faces the decision to repay the trust by sending back a larger amount of the initial investment (for example, $15 for each participant) or to defect and violate trust by keeping the money. In this game, the investor is therefore left with an important social dilemma: to trust or not to trust. Although it is more profitable to trust, doing so leaves the investor at risk of betrayal.
It has been hypothesized that oxytocin, a hormone recognized for its role in social attachment and facilitation of social interactions, is also important in the formation of trust. For instance, application of oxytocin to “investors” in experimental games increases their tendency to engage in social risks and trust someone else with their money (see this and this). The study by Baumgartner and his colleagues highlights the neural mechanisms through which oxytocin acts to facilitate trust behavior by investigating what happens in the brain when trust breaks down.
When Trust Is Broken
The authors used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan 49 participants who were given either placebo or oxytocin via a nasal spray. Participants were instructed to act as investors during multiple rounds of a trust game with different trustees. They were also told that they would engage in a risk game (similar to the trust game in terms of financial risk, but played against a computer instead of another human being). In order to investigate the role of oxytocin following breaches of trust, the experiment was divided into a pre- and post-feedback phase. In between the two phases, participants received feedback information indicating that roughly 50 percent of their decisions (in both trust and risk games) had resulted in poor investments—that is, their trust had been breached (trust game) or their gamble did not pay off (risk game).
Participants who were given a placebo prior to playing the game decreased their rate of trust (that is, how much money they were willing to invest) after they discovered their trust had been violated. Participants who received oxytocin, however, continued to invest at similar rates regardless of whether or not their trusting behavior had been taken advantage of. These behavioral group differences were accompanied by differences in neural responses, as participants in the oxytocin group showed decreases in responses in the amygdala and caudate nucleus. The amygdala is a region of the brain involved in emotion and fear learning, and is rich in oxytocin receptors, whereas the caudate nucleus has been previously linked to reward-related responses and learning to trust . Thus, the authors hypothesized that oxytocin decreases both fear mechanisms associated with a potential aversion of betrayals (via the amygdala) and our reliance on positive feedback that can influence future decisions (via the caudate). This in turn facilitates the expression of trust even after breaches of trust have occurred. Notably, the behavioral and neural results observed were only apparent when participants played the trust game, but not the risk game, suggesting that oxytocin’s effects on trust are exclusive to interactions with real people.
A Science of Social Phobias?
The study demonstrates how oxytocin can facilitate social interactions after trust has been violated, by potentially lowering defense mechanisms associated with social risks and by overcoming negative feedback that is important for adapting behavior in the future. These intriguing results provide an important step in our understanding of mental disorders where deficits in social behavior are observed. Excessive fear of betrayal, for example, could serve as a precursor to social phobia, a disorder characterized by a disabling fear of social interactions. Over the long-term, this lack of social interaction may lead to serious problems in mental and physical well-being. Thus, to continue forming a bridge between basic and clinical research, future studies may focus on the effects of oxytocin during the sort of betrayals that more commonly occur in real life (such as being betrayed by a loved one or a business partner). It will also be interesting to examine how different genders respond to breaches in confidence following oxytocin administration.
Trust is an adaptive mechanism essential to building social relationships, and breaches of trust have a profound impact on social behavior and mental health. Understanding the balance between levels of oxytocin and appropriate levels of trust will be another important step in the future. Lower levels of oxytocin in some situations may certainly be adaptive, as a person will become more wary of possible harm. Higher levels of oxytocin, however, may also be necessary at times to allow an individual to “forgive and forget,” an imperative step in maintaining long-term relationships and mental well-being.
Mind Matters is edited by Jonah Lehrer, the science writer behind the blog The Frontal Cortex and the book Proust was a Neuroscientist.
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17 Comments
Add CommentThomas Baumgartner is a neuroscientist at the University of Zurich - Switzerland, not Germany. This article reduced my oxytocin level in your reporting.
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It is fairly easy to see how this kind of intervention could be abused, for profit or power.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat I also wonder is if the post betrayal application (proposed for social phobic folks) will have the same effects as the in-the-midst-of-betrayal application (as in the study.) Once the fear is learned, will blocking the proper receptors really reverse/erase the learning, or is it a done deal that must be dealt with consciously by relearning trust?
I am a disabled social phobic who has come to realize my problem isn't chemical, it's experiential, and thus can be dealt with through reason. I have been betrayed and because of these childhood experiences I feel as though I am surrounded by enemies and I am in a constant state of distress. Hiding myself by staying home, avoiding work and human interaction, for fear of rejection, assault or unjust incarceration, has been my life-long solution to a complete lack of trust in anyone. The real solution is to take people as individuals rather than erroneously thinking that one person's behavior towards me is indicative of "everyone's" opinion. And perhaps to not expect much from people and to protect myself by concentrating on what I want, as long as I'm not harming anyone of course.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is very interesting. Would it be possible for someone to spray some of this substance, mixed in the air freshener at a brokerage house, for example. And then notice clients visiting becoming more trusting...???
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTo whom it may concern,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisnote that the university of Zurich is not in Germany but in Switzerland.
Please correct this error.
Yours sincerely,
Konstantinos Priftis, PhD
Department of General Psychology
Padova-Italy
further reading: S.M.R. Covey's 'Speed of Trust' and http://www.speedoftrust.com/
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNot to trust is more like it in this day and age.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJT
www.FireMe.To/udi
Very interesting indeed.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJT
www.Ultimate-Anonymity.com
This is kinda scary .......could a casino spary this stuff in the air to make people keep gambling???....crazy....
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisi want to knw the answer for the question of milliner??isnt cause of the lack of this harmone"oxytocin"??and how could she cure it ??y she got the lack of this harmone?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisi want to knw the answer for the question of milliner??isnt cause of the lack of this harmone"oxytocin"??and how could she cure it ??y she got the lack of this harmone?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisdo mail me the answer it wud help me in my project . .
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is a very interesting article however I don't think it could be used in casinos etc to trick you as dont you have to ingest it intranasally?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDr. Paul Zak is doing some very exciting research regarding oxytocin. As well, Neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux states that stress leads to confused and distorted thinking. It seems that considering that oxytocin is the "anti-stress" hormone, its presence may actually help us to think more clearly and be less impulsive, especially when we look at the mediating effect is has over the amygdala. More current research and commentary can be found at http://www.oxytocincentral.com
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs in almost every case of psychological research something good is pointed out and something really stupid or quite negative is concluded out of it. It's good to know how your brain functions, but out of the whole presentation you may draw the conclusion that with just a small attempt at investigating the vast level of human existence,the ultimate solution has been discovered.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLiliana Saum
More on spirit, mind and power at http://www.stretchersandthrivers.com
It's good to know how something more about your brain. However, as with every step in psychological research something good is pointed out and something stupid (usually in the form of conclusion or subsequent uses of the research is also included). Every research is just a small attempt at investigating the tremendous and varied life we're living (O.K.) and every step made in trying to form an ultimate solution out of the tentative is K.O.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLiliana
More on spirit, mind and power at http://www.stretchersandthrivers.com
In response to some of the people above who are wary of this stuff being used in public, it already is! Look here <a href='http://buy-oxytocin.com'>Buy Oxytocin</a> for an example of a website that is already openly selling oxytocin online.
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