Large groups of people can’t live together peacefully if they don’t work together. People who are more social and willing to work with others tend to rise to the top of formal organizations and informal social groups.

New research published in JNeurosci shows that administering oxytocin to the core members of a social network promotes collaboration by increasing the punishment for uncooperative behavior.

Large groups of people can’t live together peacefully if they don’t work together. People who are more social and willing to work with others tend to rise to the top of formal organizations and informal social groups.

Cooperation might, however, clash with personal objectives. Oxytocin is known to help people bond, which could explain how humans learned to work together and live in groups.

Li et al. administered intranasal oxytocin or a saline placebo to individuals in artificial social networks who held the most influential, or central, role.

The people took part in a number of online games with people they didn’t know. In one game, the core members collected money from the peripheral members and set a minimum offer that they would take.

Following several iterations of the game, the offer and acceptance threshold changed into a fifty-fifty split, a sign of collaboration, as a result of the core members receiving oxytocin. In another game, oxytocin made it more likely that central players would choose to work together and then punish peripheral players for not working together. This made the group work together more.

These findings suggest that cooperation from powerful group members spreads to the rest of the group, most likely via improved enforcement of social norms.

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