The love hormone oxytocin can affect the behavior of men and women differently in a social context: in men it improves the ability to recognize rivals, while in women it makes it easier to recognize like-minded strangers. According to Simone Shamai-Tsuri, a professor at the Department of Psychology at the University of Haifa, “these results are consistent with previous studies of social differences between men and women. Thus, women are generally inclined towards more collective and family behavior, while men prefer the spirit of competition and struggle to improve their social status.
The hormone oxytocin is released in the human body in various social situations. It is well known as the «love hormone» because it is produced at its highest concentration when we experience various positive emotions associated with social interactions — when we fall in love, make love, and when interacting with children and breastfeeding. In her previous studies, Professor Shamai-Tsuri found that, among other things, oxytocin can also be produced during negative social experiences such as jealousy and gloating. The researchers expected participants’ responses to be based, among other things, on gestures, facial expressions and body language, which was used by the heroes of the videos. The results showed that for all participants in the experiment, oxytocin generally improved the ability to accurately interpret social interactions. The researchers then analyzed the differences between men and women that emerged in this study and found that after oxytocin administration, men improved their ability to more accurately interpret competition relationships, while women improved their ability to interpret kinship relationships. Unexpectedly for scientists, it turned out that oxytocin, the “hormone of love”, did not contribute to a better recognition of close relationships between the characters in the video, neither men nor women. According to the results obtained, since the ability to correctly determine the presence of close relationships was rather low for all participants in the study, it can be said that the definition of a close relationship between two people is generally quite difficult.
“Our results are consistent with the theory that social behavioral differences between men and women are the result of a combination of both cultural and biological factors, including hormone levels,” says Professor Shamai-Tsuri.
References:
M. Fischer-Shofty, Y. Levkovitz, S. G. Shamay-Tsoory. Oxytocin facilitates accurate perception of competition in men and kinship in women. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 2012; 8 (3): 313 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsr100