Social and Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory and Developmental Disorders Graduate Program, Center for Biological and Health Sciences, Mackenzie Presbyterian University, São Paulo, Brazil.
The Integrated Brain and Behavior Research Center (IBBR) and Department of Psychology, University of Haifa, Haifa, 3498838, Israel.
Horm Behav. 2020 Jun;122:104733. doi: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2020.104733. Epub 2020 Apr 11.
A growing body of literature suggests that OT administration may affect not only prosocial outcomes, but also regulate adversarial responses in the context of intergroup relations. However, recent reports have challenged the view of a fixed role of OT in enhancing ingroup favoritism and outgroup derogation. Studying the potential effects of OT in modulating threat perception in a context characterized by racial miscegenation (Brazil) may thus afford additional clarification on the matter. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, White Brazilian participants completed a first-person shooter task to assess their responses towards potential threat from racial ingroup (White) or outgroup (Black) members. OT administration enhanced the social salience of the outgroup, by both increasing the rate at which participants refrained from shooting unarmed Black targets to levels similar to White targets, and by further increasing the rate of correct decisions to shoot armed Black targets (versus White armed targets). In summary, our results indicate that a single dose of OT may promote accurate behavioral responses to potential threat from members of a racial outgroup, thus offering support to the social salience hypothesis.
越来越多的文献表明，催产素的给药不仅会影响亲社会结果，还会调节群体间关系背景下的敌对反应。然而，最近的报告对 OT 在增强内群体偏好和外群体贬低方面的固定作用的观点提出了挑战。因此，在一个以种族混血（巴西）为特征的背景下研究 OT 在调节威胁感知方面的潜在影响，可能会对此问题提供更多的澄清。在一项双盲、安慰剂对照的研究中，巴西白人参与者完成了第一人称射击任务，以评估他们对来自种族内群体（白人）或外群体（黑人）成员的潜在威胁的反应。OT 给药通过增加参与者避免向手无寸铁的黑人目标开枪的速度，使其达到与白人目标相似的水平，以及进一步增加正确决定向武装黑人目标（而非武装白人目标）开枪的速度，从而提高了外群体的社会显著性。总之，我们的结果表明，单次 OT 剂量可能会促进对来自种族外群体的潜在威胁的准确行为反应，从而为社会显著性假说提供支持。
