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Oxytocin and Social Bonds: The Role of Oxytocin in Perceptions of Romantic Partners’ Bonding Behavior

In this research, we tested hypotheses about the role of oxytocin in adult human bonding. Inspired by revisiting the research on pair bonding in microtine voles that fueled psychologists’ interest in the role of oxytocin in social life, we drew on recent theory from affective and relationship scienc...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Algoe, Sara B., Kurtz, Laura E., Grewen, Karen
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5734372/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28968183
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797617716922
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author Algoe, Sara B.
Kurtz, Laura E.
Grewen, Karen
author_facet Algoe, Sara B.
Kurtz, Laura E.
Grewen, Karen
author_sort Algoe, Sara B.
collection PubMed
description In this research, we tested hypotheses about the role of oxytocin in adult human bonding. Inspired by revisiting the research on pair bonding in microtine voles that fueled psychologists’ interest in the role of oxytocin in social life, we drew on recent theory from affective and relationship science to identify a well-defined bonding context for human romantic relationships. We then paired these behaviors and subjective psychological responses with a measure of naturally circulating oxytocin. In 129 romantically involved adults whose partner expressed gratitude to them in the lab, greater oxytocin over the prior 24 hr was associated with greater perceptions of the expresser’s responsiveness and gratitude, as well as greater experienced love, but not general affective reward. Moreover, in this one-time conversation, higher oxytocin acted like rose-colored glasses, attenuating the effect of a partner’s behaviorally coded expressive behavior on perceptions of the expresser’s responsiveness. These results justify future research on the role of oxytocin in psychological aspects of growth processes.
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spelling pubmed-57343722017-12-22 Oxytocin and Social Bonds: The Role of Oxytocin in Perceptions of Romantic Partners’ Bonding Behavior Algoe, Sara B. Kurtz, Laura E. Grewen, Karen Psychol Sci Research Articles In this research, we tested hypotheses about the role of oxytocin in adult human bonding. Inspired by revisiting the research on pair bonding in microtine voles that fueled psychologists’ interest in the role of oxytocin in social life, we drew on recent theory from affective and relationship science to identify a well-defined bonding context for human romantic relationships. We then paired these behaviors and subjective psychological responses with a measure of naturally circulating oxytocin. In 129 romantically involved adults whose partner expressed gratitude to them in the lab, greater oxytocin over the prior 24 hr was associated with greater perceptions of the expresser’s responsiveness and gratitude, as well as greater experienced love, but not general affective reward. Moreover, in this one-time conversation, higher oxytocin acted like rose-colored glasses, attenuating the effect of a partner’s behaviorally coded expressive behavior on perceptions of the expresser’s responsiveness. These results justify future research on the role of oxytocin in psychological aspects of growth processes. SAGE Publications 2017-10-02 2017-12 /pmc/articles/PMC5734372/ /pubmed/28968183 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797617716922 Text en © The Author(s) 2017 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Research Articles
Algoe, Sara B.
Kurtz, Laura E.
Grewen, Karen
Oxytocin and Social Bonds: The Role of Oxytocin in Perceptions of Romantic Partners’ Bonding Behavior
title Oxytocin and Social Bonds: The Role of Oxytocin in Perceptions of Romantic Partners’ Bonding Behavior
title_full Oxytocin and Social Bonds: The Role of Oxytocin in Perceptions of Romantic Partners’ Bonding Behavior
title_fullStr Oxytocin and Social Bonds: The Role of Oxytocin in Perceptions of Romantic Partners’ Bonding Behavior
title_full_unstemmed Oxytocin and Social Bonds: The Role of Oxytocin in Perceptions of Romantic Partners’ Bonding Behavior
title_short Oxytocin and Social Bonds: The Role of Oxytocin in Perceptions of Romantic Partners’ Bonding Behavior
title_sort oxytocin and social bonds: the role of oxytocin in perceptions of romantic partners’ bonding behavior
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5734372/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28968183
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797617716922
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