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Blocking mu-opioid receptors inhibits social bonding in rituals

Religious rituals are universal human practices that play a seminal role in community bonding. In two experiments, we tested the role of mu-opioids as the active factor fostering social bonding. We used a mu-opioid blocker (naltrexone) in two double-blind studies of rituals from different religious...

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Autores principales: Charles, S. J., Farias, M., van Mulukom, V., Saraswati, A., Dein, S., Watts, F., Dunbar, R. I. M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7655482/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33050833
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0485
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author Charles, S. J.
Farias, M.
van Mulukom, V.
Saraswati, A.
Dein, S.
Watts, F.
Dunbar, R. I. M.
author_facet Charles, S. J.
Farias, M.
van Mulukom, V.
Saraswati, A.
Dein, S.
Watts, F.
Dunbar, R. I. M.
author_sort Charles, S. J.
collection PubMed
description Religious rituals are universal human practices that play a seminal role in community bonding. In two experiments, we tested the role of mu-opioids as the active factor fostering social bonding. We used a mu-opioid blocker (naltrexone) in two double-blind studies of rituals from different religious traditions. We found the same effect across both studies, with naltrexone leading to significantly lower social bonding compared with placebo. These studies suggest that mu-opioids play a significant role in experiences of social bonding within ritual contexts.
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spelling pubmed-76554822020-11-12 Blocking mu-opioid receptors inhibits social bonding in rituals Charles, S. J. Farias, M. van Mulukom, V. Saraswati, A. Dein, S. Watts, F. Dunbar, R. I. M. Biol Lett Neurobiology Religious rituals are universal human practices that play a seminal role in community bonding. In two experiments, we tested the role of mu-opioids as the active factor fostering social bonding. We used a mu-opioid blocker (naltrexone) in two double-blind studies of rituals from different religious traditions. We found the same effect across both studies, with naltrexone leading to significantly lower social bonding compared with placebo. These studies suggest that mu-opioids play a significant role in experiences of social bonding within ritual contexts. The Royal Society 2020-10 2020-10-14 /pmc/articles/PMC7655482/ /pubmed/33050833 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0485 Text en © 2020 The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Neurobiology
Charles, S. J.
Farias, M.
van Mulukom, V.
Saraswati, A.
Dein, S.
Watts, F.
Dunbar, R. I. M.
Blocking mu-opioid receptors inhibits social bonding in rituals
title Blocking mu-opioid receptors inhibits social bonding in rituals
title_full Blocking mu-opioid receptors inhibits social bonding in rituals
title_fullStr Blocking mu-opioid receptors inhibits social bonding in rituals
title_full_unstemmed Blocking mu-opioid receptors inhibits social bonding in rituals
title_short Blocking mu-opioid receptors inhibits social bonding in rituals
title_sort blocking mu-opioid receptors inhibits social bonding in rituals
topic Neurobiology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7655482/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33050833
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0485
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