Repeated measures ANOVA revealed a significant interaction between treatment and protagonist-gender [F(1,28) = 4.526, P = 0.042]. Follow-up t-tests revealed that in the placebo condition there was no difference in compassion toward a women (M = 4.7917, s.d. = 1.3209) compared with compassion toward a men [(M = 5.0625, s.d. = 1.2881), t(29) = 1.1017, P = 0.317]. In the OT condition, however, compassion toward women (M = 5.3667, s.d. = 1.2092) was significantly higher than compassion toward men [(M = 4.800, s.d. = 1.4389), t(29) = 2.296, P = 0.029]. When a woman was the protagonist, OT tended to improve the total compassion score in the task [OT (M = 5.3667, s.d. = 1.209), placebo (M = 4.7917, s.d. = 1.3209), t(29) = 1.955, P = 0.060, Cohen’s d = 0.454]. **P < 0.5, *P = 0.060.