According to the social salience hypothesis, the neuropeptide oxytocin boosts attunement to both positive and negative social cues, such that the effects of oxytocin on social beliefs and behavior are highly dependent on context. Among underserved racial minorities, oxytocin might enhance sensitivity to racial injustice. To test this hypothesis, we examined whether the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) rs53576 polymorphism affects individual differences in both perceived racial discrimination and beliefs about justice in an underserved racial minority. Healthy African Americans (n = 118) provided bloodspot samples that were assayed for the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs53576. Participants also completed individual differences measures of perceived racial discrimination and beliefs about justice for self and others. Consistent with the social salience hypothesis, individuals with greater potential oxytocin receptivity (G/G genotype) reported greater perceived discrimination than individuals with lower potential oxytocin receptivity (non-G/G genotype; p = .009). Also consistent, G/G individuals had stronger other-oriented beliefs about justice than non-GG individuals (p = .085). Path analysis supported that perceived discrimination mediated the connection from the G/G genotype to stronger other-oriented procedural justice beliefs, suggesting that justice beliefs among African Americans might partly reflect evaluations of discriminatory experiences that stem from oxytocin receptivity.

根据社会显着性假设，神经肽催产素可促进积极和消极社会暗示的协调，因此催产素对社会信仰和行为的影响高度依赖于情境。在服务不足的少数民族中，催产素可能会增强对种族不公的敏感性。为了检验这个假设，我们检查了催产素受体基因（OXTR）rs53576多态性是否影响个人的种族歧视和对服务不足的少数族裔的正义观念的差异。健康的非洲裔美国人（n  = 118）提供的血斑样品经检测具有单核苷酸多态性（SNP）rs53576。参加者还完成了个人差异的衡量标准，即对种族歧视的看法以及对自己和他人正义的信念。与社会显着性假设一致，具有较高潜在催产素接受能力（G / G基因型）的人比那些具有较低潜在催产素接受能力（非G / G基因型；p  = 0.009）的人表现出更大的感知歧视。也是一致的，G / G的个体有正义比非GG个体更强面向其他-信仰（p = .085）。路径分析支持认为歧视会介导G / G基因型与更强的面向其他程序的正义信念之间的联系，这表明非洲裔美国人的正义信念可能部分反映了对催产素接受性的歧视性经验的评估。