Evidence map›Paper›PMID 23152592›Full record

Trial reportThe Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience2012

Oxytocin modulates social distance between males and females.

Dirk Scheele, Nadine Striepens, Onur Güntürkün, Sandra Deutschländer, Wolfgang Maier, Keith M Kendrick, René Hurlemann

Abstract readRandomized Controlled Trial
In one paragraph

Trial report in The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 106 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
106citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

106 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Post-encoding administration of oxytocin selectively enhances memory consolidation of male faces in females.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026
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  3. Common and dissociable effects of oxytocin and lorazepam on the neurocircuitry of fear.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2020
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  7. Placebo treatment facilitates social trust and approach behavior.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2018
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  12. Oxytocin Facilitates Pavlovian Fear Learning in Males.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2016
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  14. The influence of oxytocin on volitional and emotional ambivalence.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2015
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  17. An oxytocin-induced facilitation of neural and emotional responses to social touch correlates inversely with autism traits.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2014
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  18. Oxytocin enhances brain reward system responses in men viewing the face of their female partner.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2013
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  20. Article

46 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Dirk ScheeleDepartment of Psychiatry, University of Bonn, 53105 Bonn, Germany.
Nadine Striepens
Onur Güntürkün
Sandra Deutschländer
Wolfgang Maier
Keith M Kendrick
René Hurlemann

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

In humans, interpersonal romantic attraction and the subsequent development of monogamous pair-bonds is substantially predicted by influential impressions formed during first encounters. The prosocial neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) has been identified as a key facilitator of both interpersonal attraction and the formation of parental attachment. However, whether OXT contributes to the maintenance of monogamous bonds after they have been formed is unclear. In this randomized placebo-controlled trial, we provide the first behavioral evidence that the intranasal administration of OXT stimulates men in a monogamous relationship, but not single ones, to keep a much greater distance (~10-15 cm) between themselves and an attractive woman during a first encounter. This avoidance of close personal proximity occurred in the physical presence of female but not male experimenters and was independent of gaze direction and whether the female experimenter or the subject was moving. We further confirmed this unexpected finding using a photograph-based approach/avoidance task that showed again that OXT only stimulated men in a monogamous relationship to approach pictures of attractive women more slowly. Importantly, these changes cannot be attributed to OXT altering the attitude of monogamous men toward attractive women or their judgments of and arousal by pictures of them. Together, our results suggest that where OXT release is stimulated during a monogamous relationship, it may additionally promote its maintenance by making men avoid signaling romantic interest to other women through close-approach behavior during social encounters. In this way, OXT may help to promote fidelity within monogamous human relationships.

Indexed as

Psychological DistanceAdministration, IntranasalAdultAnalysis of VarianceAvoidance LearningCohort StudiesDouble-Blind MethodFemaleHumansInterpersonal RelationsMaleMotionOxytocinPair BondPersonalityPhotic StimulationOxytocin

Identifiers

PMID23152592
PMCPMC6794013

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.