Field: Psychology › Social PsychologyType: No effect foundArea: behavioural genetics and experimental economicsTarget: Nine oxytocin receptor (OXTR) polymorphismsStage: replication
Hypothesis
Variants in the oxytocin receptor gene shape social preferences as revealed by incentivized dictator and trust games.
What failed
In 684 Swedish twins, none of the nine single nucleotide polymorphisms was significantly associated with behaviour in either game once multiple testing was corrected for, and the most significant association previously reported, between the amount donated in a dictator game and an OXTR variant, did not replicate.
Broken assumption
Common OXTR variants have effects on social preferences large enough to detect in economic games.
Why
The abstract offers no mechanism beyond the correction for multiple hypothesis testing.
From the published paper: Apicella et al. PLoS ONE, 2010. ↗CC BY