Oxytocin Selectively Improves Empathic Accuracy: A Replication in Men and Novel Insights in Women

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Oxytocin, published as a randomized controlled trial.

Here, the researchers aimed to replicate this finding and investigate the effects of oxytocin on empathic accuracy in women.

To date, women have been seriously underrepresented in human oxytocin research, and it is not known whether the effects observed in male-only samples apply to women.

Who Took Part

The study group was 31 men.

PubMed tags the participants as both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and crossover study.

The men were allocated by chance, so the Oxytocin group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Neither the men nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Oxytocin, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

Some men received a placebo instead of Oxytocin, giving a reference point.

Each person switched between Oxytocin and the comparison at some point, usually with a gap in between.

AQ was assessed at baseline (prior to drug administration).

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Autism Spectrum Disorder, Empathy, Oxytocin and Social Perception.

The authors tagged it with the keywords Autism spectrum quotient, Empathic accuracy, Human, Intranasal and Replication.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Oxytocin in 31 men.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Its findings take up roughly 4 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2019 (Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Oxytocin compound page, all human trials.