A nasal spray can make people more sociable and open to new ideas, according to researchers at Montreal’s Concordia University, and now there might be a cure for the common jitters.

A new study published in the journal Psychopharmacology found that a sniff of oxytocin can improve self-perception in social situations, according to a statement from Concordia University Researchers.

"Our study shows oxytocin can change how people see themselves, which could in turn make people more sociable," says senior author Mark Ellenbogen, Canada Research Chair in Developmental Psychopathology at Concordia University in a statement. "Under the effects of oxytocin, a person can perceive themselves as more extroverted, more open to new ideas and more trusting."

Oxytocin is commonly referred to as cuddle chemical, love hormone, and some have even deemed it the essence of love. Past researchers have associated to countless aspects of positive behavior including trust, empathy, generosity, cooperation, amiability and even orgasm. Oxytocin is a naturally occurring hormone that plays a big part in sexual reproduction, particularly during and after childbirth.

“First dates, job interviews or Christmas cocktail parties can be stressors for some people. Such social rites of passage have no doubt made shy or introverted individuals wish for a magic potion that could make them feel like socialites, yet the answer might actually come from a nasal spray,” researchers said in a statement.

Researchers recruited 100 people to participate in their study. Participants in the study were between the ages of 18 and 35. None of the participants were on medication, suffered mental disorders, or used recreational drugs.

Participants inhaled from a nasal spray that contained either oxytocin or a placebo. After an hour and a half, participants completed a questionnaire that evaluated for neuroticism, extraversion, openness to new experiences, agreeableness and conscientiousness.

"Participants who self-administered intranasal oxytocin reported higher ratings of extraversion and openness to experiences than those who received a placebo," says head Researcher Christopher Cardoso, a graduate student in the Concordia Department of Psychology. "Specifically, oxytocin administration amplified personality traits such as warmth, trust, altruism and openness."

Researchers have studied oxytocin for some time

In the past, researchers have reported the ability to boost oxytocin in human beings using a nasal spray. Feelings of trust and decreased anxiety were observed in their studies of participants, who used the nasal spray. Past research have suggested that oxytocin-based drugs could eventually be used to help with mental illnesses that involve fear of others, shyness, autism and schizophrenia, according to The Sydney Morning Herald in 2006.

"It could be like social Viagra," says Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, an investigator at the US National Institute of Mental Health to the Boston Globe about the use of oxytocin for treating disorders and the growing medical interest in oxytocin-based drugs.

There is a catch.

In 2010 Researcher Carolyn H. Declerck revealed a study that showed that oxytocin could only make people more cooperative in a social game if only they had met their partner previously. If they played with a stranger that they have never met, the hormone resulted in people be less cooperative, according to her study.

Dr. Carsten de Dreu from the University of Amsterdam found that snorts of oxytocin create preferences for those in the same ethnic or cultural group, and dislike to those from other groups, also in 2010.

“Oxytocin creates intergroup bias primarily because it motivates in-group favoritism and because it motivates out-group derogation,” says De Dreu in his study.