Trial reportBiology letters2020
Blocking mu-opioid receptors inhibits social bonding in rituals.
Trial report in Biology letters, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT06136676 (From the Heart Multi-Centre Study), which is not on this map. Cited by 19 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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.
From the Heart Multi-Centre Study: Comparing the Effects of Spiritual and Secular Meditation on Psychophysiology, Cognition, Mental Health, and Social Functioning in Healthy Adults
Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 51 citations in OpenAlex.
- Endogenous mu-opioid modulation of social connection in humans: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Translational psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Blocking mu-opioid receptors inhibits social bonding in rituals.Biology letters · 2020Trial
- Mental Health Difficulties in Children who Develop Misophonia: An Examination of ADHD, Depression & Anxiety.Child psychiatry and human development · 2025Article
- Why friendship and loneliness affect our health.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2025Review
- Opioid receptor signaling throughout ontogeny: Shaping neural and behavioral trajectories.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2025Review
- Opioidergic tuning of social attachment: reciprocal relationship between social deprivation and opioid abuse.Frontiers in neuroanatomy · 2024Review
- The people's game: evolutionary perspectives on the behavioural neuroscience of football fandom.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Banging the drum: evolutionary and cultural origins of music and its implications for psychiatry.BJPsych bulletin · 2023Article
- Social Psychopharmacology: Novel Approaches to Treat Deficits in Social Motivation in Schizophrenia.Schizophrenia bulletin · 2023Review
- Only empathy-related traits, not being mimicked or endorphin release, influence social closeness and prosocial behavior.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Opioid antagonism in humans: a primer on optimal dose and timing for central mu-opioid receptor blockade.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2023Article
- Why did doctrinal religions first appear in the Northern Subtropical Zone?Evolutionary human sciences · 2023Review
- Social isolation and the brain in the pandemic era.Nature human behaviour · 2022Review
- Oxytocin and love: Myths, metaphors and mysteries.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2022Review
- Managing the stresses of group-living in the transition to village life.Evolutionary human sciences · 2022Article
- Cochlear SGN neurons elevate pain thresholds in response to music.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Assessing Vocal Chanting as an Online Psychosocial Intervention.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- Laughter influences social bonding but not prosocial generosity to friends and strangers.PloS one · 2021Article
- The Effects of Synchrony on Group Moral Hypocrisy.Frontiers in psychology · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Religious rituals are universal human practices that play a seminal role in community bonding. In two experiments, we tested the role of mu-opioids as the active factor fostering social bonding. We used a mu-opioid blocker (naltrexone) in two double-blind studies of rituals from different religious traditions. We found the same effect across both studies, with naltrexone leading to significantly lower social bonding compared with placebo. These studies suggest that mu-opioids play a significant role in experiences of social bonding within ritual contexts.
Indexed as
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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.