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5 Am. J. Bioethics 1 (2005)
Chemical Trust: Oxytocin Oxymoron?

handle is hein.journals/ajbio5 and id is 197 raw text is: Chemical Trust Oxytocin Oxymoron? Darby Penney, M.L.S., Glenn McGee, Ph.D. Writing in the journal Nature, Michael Kosfeld and col- leagues reported that intranasal administration of oxy- tocin, a human neuropeptide involved in maternal bonding, causes a substantial increase in trusting behavior, thereby greatly increasing the benefits from social interactions.1 The double-blind study involved a trust game with real monetary stakes, in which the subjects played the role of ei- ther an investor or a trustee. Investors could choose whether and how much money to invest with an anonymous trustee, and the trustees could choose whether to honor or violate the investors' trust. The investors who had inhaled the oxy- tocin invested 17% more money than those who received the placebo. In what is becoming an increasingly tantalizing form of neuroscience, researchers in this study obtained consent not to study the phenomenon about which they were in- terested, trust, but rather the effect of a hormone more generally. The seemingly subtle shift in language, with its attendant deception, was obviously necessary for the re- searchers to conduct their study. But did they, and do re- searchers who would study phenomena of character more generally, have a special responsibility to inform subjects about the risks of shifts in subject consciousness? It is more than a question of informed consent that is at hand. For just as there is an obvious irony in manipulating sub- jects' inclination to trust in order to study the biochemical basis of that trust, there is a broader safety-and indeed human-concern about whether trust should be scientifi- cally manipulated in clinical studies in this way at all. In reporting the findings, the Kosfeld et al. wax en- thusiastic about the importance of trust in human relations and social institutions and about the potential clinical ben- efits of chemically enhanced trust, particularly for people with neurological or psychiatric disorders that are asso- ciated with social dysfunctions.'2 While acknowledging a hypothetical risk that their findings could be misused to induce trusting behaviors that selfish actors subsequently exploit,3 at least one of the authors seemed sanguine about the possibility in recent media interviews. I don't think we currently have such abuses, Ernst Fehr said. However, in the future it could happen. 4 1. Kosfeld, M., Heinrichs, M., Zak, P., Fischbacher, U., & Fehr, E. Oxytocin increases trust in humans. Nature, 435: 673 676 (2 June 2005). 2. Ibid, 673. 3. Ibid, 673. 4. Verrengia, J. Scientists experiment with 'trust' hormone. The Associated Press, June 2, 2005. www.msnbc.msn.com/id/ 8061292/ The ethical issues raised by this study are legion. First, there is the matter of the consent process involved in the study. The researchers recruited 194 healthy male univer- sity students in Zurich and informed them that the exper- iment would test the effects of a hormone on decision- making.5 At best, this is incomplete. Their finding was that the level of trust could be manipulated using oxytocin, a much more broad claim, and one clearly preconceived in the study's design, than was described to the prospective subjects. At worst, the information could be considered de- ceptive, and participants might feel that their trust, ironi- cally, was violated. Trust is a complex human phenomenon, involving so- cial behavior, emotions, and values-the potential medical- ization of trust is cause for concern. While the researchers focused primarily on what they viewed as the positive as- pects of trust as the glue that holds families, economies and societies together, a high level of trust is not necessar- ily an unmitigated good. The researchers reported that the drug inhibited defensive behaviors and betrayal aversion; this necessarily leaves affected individuals more vulnerable. Essentially, a person or institution with the capability of ar- tificially manipulating trust levels would be in a position to increase people's level of gullibility. Artificially manipu- lated trust levels could compromise people's ability to make sound judgments and put them in risky situations. It doesn't take a cynic to envision some of the predatory or nefarious purposes to which the findings of this study might be put in social and interpersonal interactions. The possibility that this substance could become a new date rape drug is chilling. Governments might use chemical means to enhance citizens' trust in its policies and actions; one can only imagine how this might be used to sway public opinion or stifle dissent. Political candidates could use it to reap the benefits of unearned trust at the polls. Schools, employers and the military might use the drug to increase control over and enhance the compliance of students, work- ers, and soldiers. Powerful commercial interests could have a field day with oxytocin: retailers could better manipulate customers, corporations could overcome skepticism about their environmental practices or the value of their stock, and used car salesman would have an advantage that went beyond the new car smell aerosols they currently spray in vehicles. The number of ways in which the unscrupulous could use such a substance for harm is probably endless. But even more troubling risks are inherent in the po- tential clinical interventions of oxytocin that are foreseen 5. Kosfeld, M., et al., op. cit., 675. The American Journal of Bioethics, 5(3): 1-2, 2005 Copyright g Taylor & Francis, Inc. ISSN: 1526-5161 print / 1536-0075 online DOI: 10.1080/15265160590970419 ajob 1 Guest Edito

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