Role of Oxytocin in Telling and Detecting Lies

June 9, 2016 updated by: University of Texas at Austin
The investigators are interested in the impact of intranasal oxytocin in unethical behavior.

Study Overview

Status

Withdrawn

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The objective of this project is to further explore the role of oxytocin in moral judgment and ethical behavior. Oxytocin is a peptide hormone produced in a variety of hypothalamic neurons. It is released into the brain or brought into general circulation through sensory stimuli in a pulsatile fashion. In social psychology research, oxytocin is hypothesized to coordinate both the causes and effects of positive social interactions in a biofeedback loop.

Study Type

Interventional

Phase

  • Early Phase 1

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 30 years (Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

Male

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Male

Exclusion Criteria:

  • _____ _____BP > 130/85, HRT > 95 (can be included at discretion of study physician/designee)

    • _____History of seizures
    • _____Neurological Disorder
    • _____Current psychiatric disorder
    • _____Previous psychiatric disorder (can be included at discretion of PI)
    • Date last episode (if > 1 year, include; if <1 year, at discretion of PI)
    • _____Current use of psychoactive drugs
    • _____Previous use of psychoactive drugs (can be included at discretion of PI) _____Date last medicated_____ _____Type of medication___________________________________
    • _____Current use of anticoagulants
    • _____Current use of corticosteroids
    • _____Previous head trauma (can be included at discretion of PI)
    • _____Alcoholism or substance abuse
    • _____Carcinoma of the breast or prostate
    • _____Renal or Hepatic diseases
    • _____Chronic lung diseases
    • _____Cancer
    • _____Liver problems
    • _____Hypertension/Cardiac diseases
    • _____Cardiovascular Disease
    • _____Nephritis
    • _____Diabetes (use of insulin) /Obesity
    • _____Endocrine disease or malignancy
    • _____Asthma (can be included as discretion of study physician/designee, if episodes are infrequent, nonmedicated, and no active problems at time of study)
    • Medication
    • Frequency of episodes____ _____Date of last episode_____
    • _____Migraines(can be included as discretion of study physician/designee, if episodes are infrequent, nonmedicated, and no active problems at time of study)
    • Medication _____Frequency of migraines_____ _____Date of last migraine_____
    • _____High levels of physical contact with women or children

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Basic Science
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Triple

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: oxytocin
Intranasal 24 IU oxytocin self-administration.
Drug: Oxytocin
Intranasal oxytocin is hypothesized to amplify the influence of social norms on unethical behavior.
Other Names:
  • syntocinon
Placebo Comparator: placebo
Intranasal placebo. 125 mg of 0.5% cholorobutanol to 50 ml saline, with approximately 5 pH. The solution will then be sterilized using a 0.22 micron filter.
Drug: Oxytocin
Intranasal oxytocin is hypothesized to amplify the influence of social norms on unethical behavior.
Other Names:
  • syntocinon

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Unethical behavior
Time Frame: 130 minutes
To measure unethical behavior, we will calculate whether participants took more money than they actually earned on a problem-solving task.
130 minutes

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Texas at Austin

Collaborators

Harvard University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Robert A Josephs, PhD, utaustin

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

January 1, 2016

Primary Completion (Actual)

April 1, 2016

Study Completion (Actual)

April 1, 2016

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 5, 2015

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 10, 2015

First Posted (Estimate)

February 11, 2015

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

June 13, 2016

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 9, 2016

Last Verified

June 1, 2016

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2013-11-0033

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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