Investigation of whether oxytocin and trust play a role in placebo effects of marketing actions

Abstract

Expectations about the quality of a medical treatment influence how much an inert treatment helps to improve patient well-being. Similarly, expectations about the quality of products influence how identical goods and services are evaluated differently after their consumption. One driver for such "placebo effects" in medical treatments is social cognition in the form of trust, which may be influenced by the hormone oxytocin. An open question is whether trust and oxytocin play similar roles in marketing placebo effects. To answer this question, we combined oxytocin administration (24 IU) and trust questionnaires in a pre-registered double-blind randomized between-subjects study design (Nfood tasting task = 223; Ncognitive performance task = 202). We could not find evidence that oxytocin and trust play a role in placebo effects of marketing actions. Together with other recent null findings from oxytocin administration studies, these findings question the role trust might play in different types of placebo effects.