Could hormones really have been the secret ingredient in legendary love potions?
Nov. 14, 2012
A group of healthy, heterosexual males — some single, others in relationships — inhaled oxytocin or a placebo nasal spray, and 45 minutes later were introduced to a female they had all deemed attractive. (They agreed she was attractive before they inhaled the aerosol hormone or placebo.) As she moved toward or away from the study volunteers, the men were asked when the attractive woman was at an "ideal distance" and when the space between them made the men "slightly uncomfortable."
Oxytocin is a social hormone, helping to facilitate bonds among family, friends and lovers by increasing trust among people. It plays a vital role in triggering childbirth and facilitating nursing, too. But scientists hadn't really determined what role oxytocin might have played, if any, in maintaining monogamous human relationships.
"Because oxytocin is known to increase trust in people, we expected men under the influence of the hormone to allow the female experimenter to come even closer," said René Hurlemann, MD, PhD, of the University of Bonn, who led the research.
And single men did move toward the attractive woman. But men in committed relationships? They kept their distance.
Researchers say it was the oxytocin. And they further say that this could impact fidelity. In a good way. Sort of like a love potion.
"In monogamous prairie voles, we know that oxytocin plays an important role in the formation of the pair bond," said Larry Young, PhD, an expert on oxytocin at Emory University who was not involved in the study. "This study suggests that the general role of oxytocin in promoting monogamous behavior is conserved from rodents to man."
In a separate experiment, the researchers found oxytocin had no effect on the distance men kept between themselves and a male experimenter.
The research is published in the November 14 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience
Wednesday, August 15, 2018