Abstract
From infancy we learn to comply with societal norms. However, overt compliance is not necessarily accompanied by a change in internal beliefs. The neuromodulatory processes underlying these different phenomena are not yet understood. Here, we test the role of oxytocin in controlling overt compliance versus internalization of information delivered by a social source. After intranasal oxytocin administration, participants showed enhanced compliance to the erroneous opinion of others. However, this expression was coupled with a decrease in the influence of others on long-term memories. Our data suggest that this dissociation may result from reduced conflict in the face of social pressure, which increases immediate conforming behavior, but reduces processing required for deep encoding. These findings reveal a neurobiological control system that oppositely affects internalization and overt compliance.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 966-973 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Neuropsychopharmacology |
| Volume | 40 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Mar 2015 |
Funding
Weizmann Institute-UK Making connections Grant; Wellcome Trust; Center of Research Excellence in the Cognitive Sciences (I-CORE); ECAll authors (MGE, MS, AW, SY, TS, and YD) declare no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest. MGE and YD are supported by a Weizmann Institute-UK Making connections Grant. TS is supported by a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellowship. YD is supported by the Center of Research Excellence in the Cognitive Sciences (I-CORE) and by the Human Brain Project of the EC.
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Pharmacology
- Psychiatry and Mental health