Abstract:

Arginine vasopressin (AVP) is one of neuroendocrine hormones which plays an important role in regulating human social behaviors. Firstly, studies about family bonding revealed that AVP is related to facilitating sexual behaviors and fatherhood in males. Secondly, studies concerning emotion perception or social assessment found that AVP is associated with inter-male aggression and inter-female affiliation. Finally, studies on social decision-making revealed that AVP promotes social engagement/cooperation associated with self-interest in males and associated with reestablishing interpersonal relationship in females. The limitations of previous studies include: i) most of evidence on effects of AVP was based on male subjects; ii) the potential clinical application of AVP treatment needs further investigation; iii) potential contextual or individual variables that modulates or mediates AVP effects needs to be identified. Future studies should also evaluate the modulations of AVP on other aspects in human social behaviors, e.g., emotion regulation, learning.

Key words: arginine vasopressin, human social behaviors, gender differences