Oxytocin, but not vasopressin, decreases willingness to harm others by promoting moral emotions of guilt and shame.

ABSTRACT: Prosocial and moral behaviors have overlapping neural systems and can both be affected in a number of psychiatric disorders, although whether they involve similar neurochemical systems is unclear. In the current registered randomized placebo-controlled trial on 180 adult male and female subjects, we investigated the effects of intranasal administration of oxytocin and vasopressin, which play key roles in influencing social behavior, on moral emotion ratings for situations involving harming others and on judgments of moral dilemmas where others are harmed for a greater good. Oxytocin, but not vasopressin, enhanced feelings of guilt and shame for intentional but not accidental harm and reduced endorsement of intentionally harming others to achieve a greater good. Neither peptide influenced a

SUBMITTER: Zheng X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11540849 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature