Trial reportNature human behaviour2020
A registered replication study on oxytocin and trust.
Trial report in Nature human behaviour, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 54 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled 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.
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.
Who cites it
54 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 138 citations in OpenAlex.
- Music and trust formation: a scoping review of neurobiological convergence and research priorities.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Pooled it
- Effects of oxytocin administration on non-social executive functions in humans: a preregistered systematic review and meta-analysis.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- The effect of intranasal oxytocin on social reward processing in humans: a systematic review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Pooled it
- The effects of intranasal oxytocin on the efficacy of psychotherapy for major depressive disorder: a pilot randomized controlled trial.Psychological medicine · 2024Trial
- The impact of oxytocin on emotion recognition and trust: Does disordered eating moderate these relationships?PloS one · 2024Trial
- Null results of oxytocin and vasopressin administration on mentalizing in a large fMRI sample: evidence from a randomized controlled trial.Psychological medicine · 2023Trial
- Divergent effects of oxytocin on "mind-reading" in healthy males.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2022Trial
- Trial
- Eye-Tracking Reveals a Role of Oxytocin in Attention Allocation Towards Familiar Faces.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2021Trial
- Prestige, Pride, and Belief: A Hypothesized Neural Integration Framework for Status, Identity, and Modern Polarization.Brain sciences · 2026Review
- Oxytocin and opioid antagonists: A dual approach to improving social behavior.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2025Review
- How does oxytocin modulate human behavior?Molecular psychiatry · 2025Review
- Effects of oxytocin on agency in anxiously attached individuals: a replication and extension.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2025Article
- Theoretical and Practical Neuroscience Tools for Neurosurgery.Advances and technical standards in neurosurgery · 2025Review
- How factors of the therapeutic alliance interact with oxytocin neurotransmission in psychotherapy.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Review
- Reducing publication bias with Registered Reports.Nature neuroscience · 2024Article
- Melanocortin agonism in a social context selectively activates nucleus accumbens in an oxytocin-dependent manner.Neuropharmacology · 2024Article
- Bullying fosters interpersonal distrust and degrades adolescent mental health as predicted by Social Safety Theory.Nature. Mental health · 2024Article
- Long range projections of oxytocin neurons in the marmoset brain.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Conserved and differing functions of the endocrine system across different social systems - oxytocin as a case study.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In an influential paper, Kosfeld et al. (2005) showed that intranasal administration of oxytocin (OT) increases the transfers made by investors in the trust game-suggesting that OT increases trust in strangers. Subsequent studies investigating the role of OT in the trust game found inconclusive effects on the trusting behaviour of investors but these studies deviated from the Kosfeld et al. study in an important way-they did not implement minimal social contact (MSC) between the investors and the trustees in the trust game. Here, we performed a large double-blind and placebo-controlled replication study of the effects of OT on trusting behaviour that yields a power of more than 95% and implements an MSC condition as well as a no-social-contact (NoC) condition. We find no effect of OT on trusting behaviour in the MSC condition. Exploratory post hoc analyses suggest that OT may increase trust in individuals with a low disposition to trust in the NoC condition, but this finding requires confirmation in future research. PROTOCOL REGISTRATION: The stage 1 protocol for this Registered Report was accepted in principle on 19 October 2018. The protocol, as accepted by the journal, can be found at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.11980368.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.