Baumgartner et al

Question 1

aim

Answer 1

Investigate the role of oxytocin after breaches of trust in a trust game. The researchers examine the hypothesis that oxytocin as a hormone positively influences being trusting and forgiving in economic decision making.

Question 2

procedure

Answer 2

-Lab experiment
-Participants played a trust game to study social interaction.
The investor receives a sum of money and decided whether to keep or share it with a trustee
If the sum is shared then the trustee decides if it should be shared or kept
-fMRI scans were carried out on 49 male university students
-Double blind study
Participants received either oxytocin or a placebo nasal spray 50 minutes before the trust game
-Participants played against different trustees and a computer in a risk game
-In 50% of the games their trust was broken.

Question 3

results

Answer 3

-Participants receiving the placebo decreased their trusting behaviour in 50% of the cases
-Subjects receiving OT demonstrated no change in their trusting behaviour
-Different brain areas were active in the two groups
OT group showed decreases in responses in the amygdala and caudate nucleus
Placebo group showed stronger activation in the amygdala and other midbrain regions
-OT group showed no change in their trusting behaviour even after their trust had been breached several times
-Subjects receiving the placebo decreased their trust
This is associated with a specific reduction in activation in the amygdala and midbrain regions to subjects receiving oxytocin
-These behavioural changes could only be observed when participants played the trust game, and not the risk game against the computer .
-Suggests that OT’s effect on trust only comes into play in interactions with real people.

Question 4

conclusion

Question 5

evaluation

Answer 5

-oxytocin could explain why people are able to restore trust and forgive in long-term relationships.
- the study was a highly controlled experiment which increases it internal validity
- the use of a placebo allows the researchers to infer a cause-and- effect relationship between the level of oxytocin and the level of trust \
- the evidence is somewhat correlational as it is merely mapping brain activity and and nothin definite can be said about the role of increased oxytocin in trust.
- The argument that oxytocin affects trust is reductionisn. Sociocultural factors may also affect the degree to which we are able to forgive and continue to trust someone.