The degree to which people are willing to donate their own money for social and ecological sustainability projects depends on their level of oxytocin

The sustainable development of society and ecosystems is crucial for human welfare, today and in the future. Marking historic momentum for humanitarian and climate action, world leaders of the 193 United Nations member states met at UN headquarters in New York in September 2015 to formally adopt a new, ambitious agenda for sustainable development to end extreme poverty, to fight inequality and injustice, and to fix climate change.ⁱ While the UN sustainable development goals are widely accepted as the strongest international agenda to promote sustainability, ecological and social responsibility have become a top priority for governments, institutions, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and companies worldwide.

However, sustainable decision making often requires balancing ecological and social goals. In order to motivate more individuals to act responsibly with regard to social prosperity and environmental protection, a transdisciplinary approach aiming to understand the processes of sustainable decision making is essential. From a psychological perspective, sustainable development poses a challenge to each individual, as ecological and social responsibility often require a shift in personal priorities away from selfish towards more altruistic goals, at the cost of personal profits. While decision making per se is one of the best-studied domains in cognitive neuroscience, the brain mechanisms that underlie sustainable decision making have received much less attention to date.

A new studyⁱⁱ led by Rene Hurlemann MD, PhD, chair of the Division of Medical Psychology and vice-chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Bonn in Germany, has shed some light on these mechanisms. His team tested the influence of oxytocin on altruistic decisions in both a socially and ecologically framed sustainability context. Oxytocin, a hormone produced in a region of the brain called the hypothalamus, strengthens social ties in, for example, people newly in love and during breastfeeding the level of this hormone is particularly high. Earlier studies have found that oxytocin also promotes social behaviours such as trust, empathy and generosity. However, it remains unclear whether the underlying motivation of an altruistic choice translates to socially or ecologically framed sustainability projects and whether sustainable decisions are influenced by oxytocin.

In the present study, the scientists conducted two behavioural experiments involving a group of 172 healthy male volunteers. Each participant received €10 and was able to decide whether he would keep the money for himself or would donate a portion or all of the money to a sustainability project. The participants were told that their donations would support either an ecologically framed project (rainforest reforestation in the Congo region) or a socially framed project (improving the livelihoods of the native inhabitants in the same region).ⁱⁱⁱ In the first experiment, the participants’ oxytocin levels were measured using saliva samples.

Oxytocin decreases the willingness to donate to ecological projects

As expected, the results show that participants exhibiting higher levels of oxytocin in their saliva donated far more generously to social projects than did those with lower hormone levels. However, what was surprising was that this effect could not be observed for ecologically framed projects. In an independent second experiment, the researchers administered oxytocin to some of the participants via nasal spray; the other participants received a placebo spray as control. The pattern repeated itself: On average, the oxytocin group donated twice as much to social projects (€4.50) than the untreated participants (€2.21).

Surprisingly, when participants were exposed to an ecological project, this behavioural pattern completely changed: the willingness to donate decreased under oxytocin. While the placebo subjects donated an average of €4.42 of the €10, the subjects receiving oxytocin were more penurious, donating only €2.42. To further test the influence of oxytocin on sustainable decision making, participants were additionally asked to decide whether to purchase a range of products either at market price for a conventionally manufactured version or at a price the participants set themselves for sustainable version. Intriguingly, participants given oxytocin were willing to pay double the price for socially sustainable products, illustrating that oxytocin’s pro-social influence even extends to the domain of sustainable consumption.

A hormone shifts altruistic priorities

Collectively, the results show that the participants who were given oxytocin more than doubled their donations to the social charity and nearly halved the donations to the ecological charity, compared to the placebo-treated group. Participants with low oxytocin levels tended to support environmental sustainability projects. The researchers found that oxytocin induced a change in altruistic behaviour away from ecological and towards social donations, while keeping the overall proportion of donated money constant. This effective shift of donation allocation towards social causes can be interpreted as a specific effect of oxytocin on pro-social neural underpinnings during economic decision making and not on economic rationality overall.

Given the substantial evidence suggesting elevated oxytocin release in a significant percentage of the population, including people engaged in romantic relationships, parental care, or social group activities, one may assume a widely prevalent bias towards social rather than ecological responsibility, which is inherent to the hormonal make-up of the human brain. According to this research policy makers, institutions, NGOs, and companies may be well advised to emphasise the social benefits of ecological sustainability in order to promote pro-environmental attitudes and eco-friendly behaviours. The researchers conclude that in case support is needed for environmental projects, the social message of the project should be emphasised to also reach those people who have elevated oxytocin levels. Also, promoting environmentally oriented projects using social frames may increase awareness toward ­– and motivate more individuals and groups to engage in – eco-friendly behaviours, which may help improve climate change prevention and the preservation of biodiversity.

Rene Hurlemann, MSc, MD, PhD, Full Professor
Vice Chair, Department of Psychiatry
Chair of the Medical Psychology Division
Head of the NEMO (Neuromodulation of Emotion) Research Group
University of Bonn
+49 (0)228 287 19123
renehurlemann@icloud.com
http://renehurlemann.squarespace.com/welcome/

ⁱhttp://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/70/1&Lang=E

ⁱⁱMarsh et al. (2015). The Neuropeptide Oxytocin induces a Social Altruism Bias. Available from: http://www.jneurosci.org/content/35/47/15696.long

ⁱⁱⁱAfter completion of the study, the total amount of the money donated by the participants was given to a real sustainability-related charity project

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