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Didn't know if this qualified as religion or medical so I stuck it here. I think the study is flawed because they introduced meditation. Would they have been more spiritual without the meditation? Is this being confused with the "trust/empathy" effect?
Joel Yager, MD Reviewing Van Cappellen P et al., Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2016 Oct 11:1579 In double-blinded experiments with men, intranasal oxytocin increased feelings of spirituality that persisted for a week, and these results were moderated by certain oxytocin-related genotypes.
The neurotransmitter oxytocin, which is involved in affiliative social processes and positive emotions, might be linked to spirituality, broadly defined as the individual's sense of interconnectedness or orientation to a transcendent reality. To learn more, investigators enrolled 83 men who were not regular meditators (mean age, 45; 87% white; 51% Christian; 39% agnostic or atheist), in a randomized, double-blind laboratory study.
Participants received intranasal oxytocin or placebo 40 minutes before filling out scales on spirituality and religiosity. After a 20-minute guided meditation, they completed measures of implicit and explicit positive and negative emotions experienced during the meditation. Spirituality measures were repeated a week later.
Analyses controlled for positive and negative emotions, disposition toward mindfulness, and baseline religious affiliation. After meditation, oxytocin administration significantly increased positive emotions and feelings that spirituality was important in one's life; spirituality findings were maintained 1 week later. Results were similar in subanalyses of two items (feeling that all people share a spiritual bond on a higher plane, and beliefs that life has a larger meaning or purpose or involves a higher order). Spirituality ratings and oxytocin–spirituality measure interactions positively correlated with the presence of certain single nucleotide polymorphisms in a gene controlling oxytocin release in the hypothalamus.
Comment Other studies have suggested that endogenous oxytocin contributes to spiritual experiences in association with positive emotions; this study adds findings based on external administration and intrinsic oxytocin-related polymorphisms. The persistence of some effects for up to a week is notable, as is the separation of these effects from affiliation with organized religion. Other studies linked specific neural networks to spirituality; this one suggests variable biological predispositions to spiritual experiences.
