Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Psychol Sci. 2017 Dec;28(12):1763-1772. doi: 10.1177/0956797617716922. Epub 2017 Oct 2.
In this research, we tested hypotheses about the role of oxytocin in adult human bonding. Inspired by revisiting the research on pair bonding in microtine voles that fueled psychologists' interest in the role of oxytocin in social life, we drew on recent theory from affective and relationship science to identify a well-defined bonding context for human romantic relationships. We then paired these behaviors and subjective psychological responses with a measure of naturally circulating oxytocin. In 129 romantically involved adults whose partner expressed gratitude to them in the lab, greater oxytocin over the prior 24 hr was associated with greater perceptions of the expresser's responsiveness and gratitude, as well as greater experienced love, but not general affective reward. Moreover, in this one-time conversation, higher oxytocin acted like rose-colored glasses, attenuating the effect of a partner's behaviorally coded expressive behavior on perceptions of the expresser's responsiveness. These results justify future research on the role of oxytocin in psychological aspects of growth processes.
在这项研究中，我们测试了关于催产素在成人人类联系中的作用的假设。受重新审视刺激心理学家对催产素在社会生活中作用的研究的启发，我们借鉴了情感和关系科学的最新理论，为人类浪漫关系确定了一个明确的联系背景。然后，我们将这些行为和主观心理反应与自然循环催产素的测量结果进行了配对。在 129 名涉及浪漫关系的成年人中，他们的伴侣在实验室中向他们表达了感激之情，在过去 24 小时内，催产素水平越高，他们对表达者的反应性和感激之情的感知就越强，同时体验到的爱也就越强，但一般的情感回报却没有增强。此外，在这一次的对话中，较高的催产素就像玫瑰色的眼镜，削弱了伴侣行为编码的表达行为对表达者反应性的感知的影响。这些结果为未来研究催产素在成长过程的心理方面的作用提供了依据。
