When choosing whether to act altruistically, people may compare the current option to an idiosyncratic ideal. Prosocial individuals seem to represent deviations from that ideal in the amygdala, but selfish individuals do not. Oxytocin administration makes selfish individuals look more like prosocial individuals, behaviorally and neurally.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Liu, Y. et al. Nat. Neurosci. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-019-0351-1 (2019).
Janak, P. H. & Tye, K. M. Nature 517, 284–292 (2015).
Fehr, E. & Schmidt, K. M. Q. J. Econ. 114, 817–868 (1999).
Kahneman, D. & Tversky, A. Econometrica 47, 263–292 (1979).
Tusche, A. & Hutcherson, C. A. eLife 7, e31185 (2018).
Crockett, M. J., Siegel, J. Z., Kurth-Nelson, Z., Dayan, P. & Dolan, R. J. Nat. Neurosci. 20, 879–885 (2017).
Tost, H. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 107, 13936–13941 (2010).
Bartz, J. A., Zaki, J., Bolger, N. & Ochsner, K. N. Trends Cogn. Sci. 15, 301–309 (2011).
Walum, H., Waldman, I. D. & Young, L. J. Biol. Psychiatry 79, 251–257 (2016).
Leng, G. & Ludwig, M. Biol. Psychiatry 79, 243–250 (2016).
Haruno, M. & Frith, C. D. Nat. Neurosci. 13, 160–161 (2010).
Li, J., Schiller, D., Schoenbaum, G., Phelps, E. A. & Daw, N. D. Nat. Neurosci. 14, 1250–1252 (2011).
Quattrocki, E. & Friston, K. Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. 47, 410–430 (2014).
Zaki, J. & Mitchell, J. P. Curr. Dir. Psychol. Sci. 22, 466–470 (2013).
Bartz, J. et al. Soc. Cogn. Affect. Neurosci. 6, 556–563 (2011).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Roberts, I.D., Teoh, Y.Y. & Hutcherson, C.A. Oxytocin and the altruistic ‘Goldilocks zone’. Nat Neurosci 22, 510–512 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-019-0362-y
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-019-0362-y