Giving people a whiff of a key chemical can make them more inclined to trust strangers with their cash, a new study reveals. Just three puffs of a nasal spray containing a hormone called oxytocin increased the chance that people would part with their money.
The research centred around a game in which an 鈥渋nvestor鈥� player gives part or all of his money on blind trust to an anonymous 鈥渢rustee鈥� player who earns interest on the combination of his own money and the invested sum. But the investor is told there is no obligation for the 鈥渢rustee鈥� to give any money back at all 鈥� they risk losing any money they choose to invest.
Michael Kosfeld at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, who led the study found that investors gave away their money far more willingly if they had sniffed oxytocin than if they had sniffed a placebo. But this extra willingness disappeared when the trustee鈥檚 role was computerised, rather than carried out by another human, confirming that the effect was interpersonal, and not simply a general willingness to gamble.
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Overcoming shyness
Kosfeld speculates that the hormone reduces people鈥檚 aversion to betrayal, overcoming an unwillingness to initiate interaction with strangers. This matches observations in animal studies. 鈥淚t helps animals to approach one another, which is a parallel with trust in our game,鈥� he says.
Kosfeld鈥檚 team sees great potential for the hormone in the treatment of people who are excessively shy or withdrawn. 鈥淲e鈥檙e hoping that if you use oxytocin as a companion to psychotherapy, it could have some positive effects,鈥� he says.
But could it be used to con people? Kosfeld doubts it, because it takes nearly an hour for the hormone to reach the brain. Nor would it be easy to make people 鈥渟niff鈥� something unfamiliar, and it is not known whether it would work through a spiked drink.
Oxytocin is more conventionally used to help induce labour in pregnant women and assist breastfeeding in mothers.
Journal reference: Nature (vol 435, p 673)
