Specific hormones stimulate non-sexual intimate behavior
Specific neuropeptide hormones, most notably oxytocin and vasopressin, play a fundamental role in stimulating and regulating non-sexual intimate behaviors such as social bonding, affectionate touch, affiliation, and prosocial engagement.
The claim is specific and empirically testable, passing Step 0. Multiple peer-reviewed studies and reviews consistently support the role of hormones like oxytocin and vasopressin in non-sexual intimate and affiliative behaviors, yielding a supported balance verdict with no refuting papers.
Carter CS, Perkeybile AM. The Monogamy Paradox: What Do Love and Sex Have to Do With It?. 2018. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2018.00202
Paper 0 establishes that oxytocin and vasopressin pathways support non-sexual social features of monogamy such as selective affiliation and lasting social bonds.
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Beery AK. Frank Beach award winner: Neuroendocrinology of group living.. 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2018.11.002
Paper 3 reviews how non-sexual affiliative behaviors and peer relationships are impacted by oxytocin and HPA axis signaling.
Schneider E, Hopf D, Aguilar-Raab C, Scheele D, Neubauer AB, Sailer U, Hurlemann R, Eckstein M, Ditzen B. Affectionate touch and diurnal oxytocin levels: An ecological momentary assessment study.. 2023. https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.81241
Paper 4 demonstrates that affectionate touch increases endogenous oxytocin levels and buffers stress on a hormonal level.
Herbeck YE, Eliava M, Grinevich V, MacLean EL. Fear, love, and the origins of canid domestication: An oxytocin hypothesis.. 2022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpnec.2021.100100
Paper 5 discusses oxytocin's critical functions in affiliative social behavior, social engagement, and cooperation.
Tarsha MS, Narvaez D. The evolved nest, oxytocin functioning, and prosocial development.. 2023. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1113944
Paper 8 highlights how oxytocinergic functioning underlies prosocial development and supportive social relationships.
Borland JM. A review of the effects of different types of social behaviors on the recruitment of neuropeptides and neurotransmitters in the nucleus accumbens.. 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yfrne.2025.101175
Paper 10 concludes that oxytocin, endocannabinoids, and mu-opioid receptors positively regulate rewarding non-sexual social behaviors like affiliation and play.
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