Another limitation of the study is that this SNP was selected based on its associations with social responding and behavior in prior studies, and not agnostically arrived at in a genome-wide association study. Thus, it will be important to further test the effects of this gene as a moderator of intervention effects in future studies. In addition, we are unable to determine the specific biological mechanisms by which rs2268493 has an effect, as the functional effect of this SNP on the oxytocin system has not been explored (though see Di Napoli et al., 2014). Finally, we did not include a measure of social bonding in the present study, and therefore cannot test whether this is the mechanism by which the genotype has an effect on outcomes in the group-based intervention.
