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Does the binding hormone oxytocin counteract xenophobia?
Especially during the refugee crisis, it became clear that many people have great fears about the "stranger" and "unknown". Many said they are afraid of "alienation", the flooding of their own social spheres of life.
Racism exists when people are discriminated against and harassed on the basis of skin color, origin etc. (Image: grafikplusfoto / fotolia.com) Xenophobia or xenophobia can quickly turn into xenophobia, which manifests itself verbally but also in physical attacks. A team led by Prof. Rene Hurlemann from the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy of the University Hospital Bonn has now made an astounding discovery. With the lucky hormone oxytocin study participants could be made to revise the xenophobic attitude and develop more altruism.
Your own family and friends are usually closer to you than strangers. Even during the refugee crisis, it was found that by no means everyone is inclined to support migrants. "This is partly due to evolutionary reasons: Only through cohesion and cooperation within one's own group was it possible in pre-civilizational times to raise the offspring and survive in competition for scarce resources with foreign and rival groups," explains Prof. Rene Hurlemann von the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy of the University Hospital Bonn.
However, the parable of the Good Samaritan would be diametrically opposed to this. The Samaritan helps a stranger at the expense of personal disadvantages and is considered an example of selfless charity. "From a neurobiological perspective, the basics of xenophobia and altruism are not yet fully understood," says Hurlemann.
Under the direction of the psychiatrist, a team of scientists from the University of Bonn, the Laureate Institute for Brain Research in Tulsa (USA) and the University of Lübeck tested a total of 183 subjects. It was all about students from Germany. In the Laboratory for Experimental Economic Research (BonnEconLab) of the University of Bonn, they completed a donation task on the computer. In it the concrete donation concerns - for example clothes - were presented by 50 needy people, 25 of whom came from Germany; 25 others were refugees.
With a starting balance of 50 euros, the participants could decide separately for each case, whether they wanted to donate a sum between zero and one euro. What was not donated, the subjects were allowed to keep. "We were surprised that the participants of the first experiment donated about 20 percent more for refugees than for native needy people," says Nina Marsh from the team of Prof. Hurlemann.
Questionnaire on attitude towards migrants
In a round of more than 100 subjects, a personal questionnaire regarding refugees was first questioned with a questionnaire. Then one half received the binding hormone oxytocin via a nasal spray, the other half received only a dummy treatment and served as a comparison group. Again, it was decided with a starting balance of 50 €, how much of it should be donated to locals or refugees.
Under the influence of the binding hormone donations doubled for refugees as well as for natives of those participants who showed a positive attitude towards refugees. On the other hand, if the test subjects gave migrants a more defensive attitude, oxytocin had no effect at all: the donation inclination was very low compared to all those in need. "Obviously, oxytocin increases generosity towards the needy; lacks this altruistic attitude, the administration of the hormone can not produce it by itself, "says Hurlemann.
Oxytocin and standards are effective
How can people with a tendency to xenophobic attitudes be motivated to become more altruistic? The scientists assumed that the specification of social norms could be a starting point. Therefore, they presented the subjects in a third round for each case study the average donation result of their predecessors in the first experiment. Again, half of the subjects were given oxytocin. The result was amazing. "Now even people with a basically negative attitude up to 74 percent more for refugees donated than in the previous round. Donations for locals, on the other hand, did not increase, "reports Nina Marsh. Through the combined administration of hormone and social norm, the amount of donations made by foreign skeptics reached nearly 50 percent of that of the altruistic group.
What conclusions can be drawn from this result? "Skepticism towards migrants could be countered with social norms," says Hurlemann. For example, when familiar people, such as superiors, neighbors, or friends, set a good example, publicizing their positive attitude to refugees, and appealing to altruism, more people from the xenophobic group would probably feel motivated to help by this social standard. The binding hormone oxytocin could thereby strengthen confidence and mitigate fears - in joint activities, experience has shown that oxytocin levels in the blood increase. "This would be an ideal situation to encourage the acceptance and integration of immigrants who depend on our help," says Hurlemann. (Prof. Dr. Dr. Rene Hurlemann)
Publication: Nina Marsh, Dirk Scheele, Justin Feinstein, Holger Gerhardt, Sabrina Strang, Wolfgang Maier, Rene Hurlemann: Oxytocin-enforced norm compliance reduces xenophobic outgroup rejection, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), DOI: 10.1073 / pnas. 170585311.