When social preferences and anxiety drive behavior and vasopressin does not

An neuroeconomic analysis of vasopressin and the Hawk-Dove game

Abstract

We delineated the causal influence of vasopressin on behavior in an iterated Hawk-Dove game. While subjects treated with vasopressin tend to be more aggressive in response to group members who did not coordinate on equilibrium instantaneously, this effect vanishes as soon as the subjects reach an equilibrium. More than vasopressin, social preferences and trait anxiety of the subjects predict the observed behavior.