An interventional study of Oxytocin nasal spray and Placebo in Healthy Adult Participants, sponsored by University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. Recruiting at 1 site in China. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 35 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-09-11.
Sponsored by University of Electronic Science and Technology of China · Not applicable, Interventional, and Basic science
This study aims to investigate the modulation of intranasally administered oxytocin (24 IU) on human fairness perception and related prosocial behaviors.
Fairness preference is a cornerstone of human sociality, often driving individuals to incur personal costs in order to uphold fairness norms. Oxytocin (OT), a neuropeptide, is considered a potential modulator of prosocial behavior, yet its specific mechanism of action in fairness decision-making remains unclear. Previous research has predominantly focused on the overall effects of OT on behaviors, without differentiating its roles across distinct processing stages such as cognitive evaluation and emotional anticipation. Furthermore, there is a lack of systematic investigation into whether its effects are modulated by social context and gain-loss contexts. Using a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled between-subjects design, the present study combines functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with the Dictator Game (DG) and the Ultimatum Game (UG) to elucidate how intranasal OT influences fairness perception and related prosocial behavior. The UG additionally involves strategic considerations of the proposer arising from the recipient's ability to reject the offer. Participants, act as proposers, are instructed to rate their perceived levels of fairness and guilt when receiving advantageous inequity and fair allocations in both gain and loss contexts. Following ratings, participants make decisions of accepting or rejecting the current allocation. Their brain activity and behavioral responses will be synchronously recorded during the tasks, and scores of questionnaires including Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire, Social Value Orientation, Self-Report Altruism Scale, Prosocial Tendencies Measure, Behavioral Inhibition System and Behavioral Activation System Scale, Interpersonal Reactivity Index, Toronto Alexithymia Scale, Beck Depression Inventory-Ⅱ, Guilt and Shame Proneness Scale, Test of Self-Conscious Affect are also collected before the experiment.
29 studies on the registry are indexed under Altruism; 7 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 80 is below the median of 241 across 27 interventional studies indexed under Altruism.
Browse Altruism studies →University of Electronic Science and Technology of China is the lead sponsor of 112 studies on the registry; 37 are open to participants now.
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Exclusion Criteria:
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.
Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.
Contraception
Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.
Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
male and female subjects with oxytocin treatment
Drug: Oxytocin nasal spray
male and female subjects with placebo treatment
Drug: Placebo
intranasal administration of oxytocin (24IU)
intranasal administration of placebo (24IU)
Fairness rating scores
Participants are asked to rate their perceived levels of fairness on a 9-point Likert scale (1 = highly fair, 9 = highly unfair) to the computer's allocation in each trial.
Time frame: 1 hour
Anticipated guilt rating scores
Participants are asked to rate the anticipated guilt they would feel if they accepted the allocation given by the computer in each trial. Ratings were conducted on a 9-point Likert scale (1 = not at all, 9 = highly guilty).
Time frame: 1 hour
The binary decision to the initial allocation
Participants are asked to makde decisions of accepting or rejecting the allocation provided by the computer in each trial.
Time frame: 1 hour
Brain activity patterns
Brain activity patterns in response to the outcome of the allocation given by computer and the binary decision. We will examine these brain response patterns via both the conventional univariate analysis and the machine learning-based multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) approaches.
Time frame: 1 hour
Inequity aversion parameters derived from the Fehr-Schmidt model
Inequity aversion parameters derived from the Fehr-Schmidt model are used to elucidate whether OT would modulate inequity aversion. This model-based analysis was conducted based on choices using hierarchical Bayesian modeling. In the Fehr-Schmidt model, the subjective value of a given allocationis determined by one's own and the other's allocation using the following formula: SV(Mself, Mother) = Mself - βmax{ Mself - Mother, 0}, Mself ≠ Mother where Mself is one's payoff and Mother is the other's payoff. Parameter β represents the weight assigned to inequity. Higher parameter values indicate a stronger degree of inequity aversion in participants.
Time frame: 1 hour
Plan to share: No
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Started Sep 2026 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Dec 2026, 3 months after the start.
Of 20 interventional studies with no phase under Altruism, half reached primary completion within 12 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 8 and three quarters within 15. This study's planned 3 months is below that.
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Studies of the drug tested here: Oxytocin
University of Electronic Science and Technology of China →