Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Visual perspective taking (VPT) is a fundamental component of social cognition, allowing individuals to understand environments from diverse viewpoints. Explicit VPT involves deliberately adopting another person's perspective, whereas implicit VPT reflects the incidental influence of others' viewpoints when responding from one's own. Oxytocin (OT), a neuropeptide known for its role in social bonding, has been proposed to influence self-other processing, though its effects on VPT remain unclear. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, seventy-nine healthy male participants (Oxytocin = 39, Placebo = 40) completed explicit and implicit VPT tasks. Participants judged object locations from an avatar's perspective (explicit) or from their own perspective (implicit), in the presence of a human agent or an object. OT administration was associated with reduced accuracy in the explicit task under perspective conflict, reflecting increased egocentric interference. In contrast, in the implicit task, OT was associated with faster and more accurate responses in congruent trials involving a human agent. Together, these findings indicate that oxytocin-related effects on visual perspective taking vary across task demands and social context. Rather than reflecting a general enhancement or impairment of perspective-taking ability, the results provide behavioral evidence consistent with differential modulation of self-other processing.
Source: Scientific Reports
Authors: Yulong Huang, Chen Qu, Chunyu Wei, Lara Bardi
Institutions: South China Normal University, Ghent University
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,690
OpenAlex ID: W7130505197