← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Angler
Thread ID: 18490 | Posts: 6 | Started: 2005-06-02
2005-06-02 07:25 | User Profile
[url]http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/trust_hormone;_ylt=An0zce7rkOK3EAEs_Npouxj737YB;_ylu=X3oDMTA0cDJlYmhvBHNlYwM-[/url]
Scientists Experiment With 'Trust' Hormone
By JOSEPH B. VERRENGIA, AP Science Writer Wed Jun 1, 9:03 PM ET
It sounds like the plot for another Batman sequel: The villain sprays Gotham City with a trust hormone and people rush to give him all their money. Banks, the stock market and even governments collapse.
Farfetched? Swiss and American scientists demonstrate in new experiments how a squirt of the hormone oxytocin stimulates trusting behavior in humans, and they acknowledge that the possibility of abuse can't be ignored.
"Of course, this finding could be misused," said Ernst Fehr of the University of Zurich, the senior researcher in the study, which appears in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature. "I don't think we currently have such abuses. However, in the future it could happen."
Other scientists say the new research raises important questions about oxytocin's potential as a therapy for conditions like autism, in which trust is diminished. Or, perhaps the hormone's activity could be reduced to treat more rare diseases, like Williams syndrome, in which children approach strangers fearlessly.
"Might their high level of trust be due to excessive oxytocin release?" asks University of Iowa neurologist Antonio Damasio, who reviewed the experiments for Nature. "Little is known about the neurobiology of trust, although the phenomenon is beginning to attract attention."
Oxytocin is secreted in brain tissue and synthesized by the hypothalamus. This small, but crucial feature located deep in the brain controls biological reactions like hunger, thirst and body temperature, as well as visceral fight-or-flight reactions associated with powerful, basic emotions like fear and anger.
For years oxytocin was considered to be a straightforward reproductive hormone found in both sexes. In both humans and animals, this chemical messenger stimulates uterine contractions in labor and induces milk production. In both women and men, oxytocin is released during sex, too.
Then, elevated concentrations of the hormone also were found in cerebrospinal fluid during and after birth, and experiments showed it was involved in the biochemistry of attachment. It's a sensible conclusion, given that babies require years of care and the body needs to motivate mothers for the demanding task of childrearing.
In recent years, scientists have wondered whether oxytocin also is generally involved with other aspects of bonding behavior ââ¬â and specifically whether it stimulates trust.
Trust is the glue of society and human interactions. Erase it, and you compromise everything from love to trade and political order.
"I once likened trust to a love potion," Damasio writes in Nature. "Add trust to the mix, for without trust there is no love."
In the experiments, the researchers tried to manipulate people's trust by adding more oxytocin to their brains. They used a synthetic version in a nasal spray that was absorbed by mucous membranes and crossed the blood-brain barrier. Researchers say the dose was harmless and altered oxytocin levels only temporarily.
A total of 178 male students from universities in Zurich took part in a pair of experiments. All the volunteers were in their 20s. They got the oxytocin or a placebo.
In the first experiment, they played a game in which an "investor" could choose to hand over to a "trustee" up to 12 units of money that are each equal to .40 Swiss franc, or about 32 cents. The trustee triples the investor's money, then gets to decide how much of the proceeds to share.
Of 29 subjects who got oxytocin, 45 percent invested the maximum amount of 12 monetary units and, in the researchers' words, showed "maximal trust." Only 21 percent had a lower trust level in which they invested less than 8 monetary units.
In contrast, the placebo group's trust behavior was reversed. Only 21 percent of the placebo subjects invested the maximum, while 45 percent invested at low levels.
Overall, those who got oxytocin invested 17 percent more than investors who received a placebo.
In a second experiment, investors faced the same decision. But this time, the trustee was replaced by a computer program in an effort to see whether the hormone promoted social interaction or simply encouraged risk-taking.
With the computer, the oxytocin and placebo groups behaved similarly, with both groups investing an average of 7.5 monetary units.
"Oxytocin causes a substantial increase in trusting behavior," Fehr and his colleagues reported.
Researchers said they are performing a new round of experiments using brain imaging. "Now that we know that oxytocin has behavioral effects," Fehr said, "we want to know the brain circuits behind these effects."
2005-06-02 16:32 | User Profile
I am not sure if this one is the same one that I read about, this one makes you buy stuff that you don't need (we are doing that anyway) and when you enter a store it will hit you right away and will make you buy.
Hummmmmmm that happens to me when I go to Walmart, I wonder if that's what they are doing to me.
2005-06-03 01:00 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Ponce]I am not sure if this one is the same one that I read about, this one makes you buy stuff that you don't need (we are doing that anyway) and when you enter a store it will hit you right away and will make you buy.
Hummmmmmm that happens to me when I go to Walmart, I wonder if that's what they are doing to me.[/QUOTE]That can't be what this stuff is, Ponce. This finding is too new. And although this oxytocin hormone is created naturally in the human brain, harvesting it for use on customers in stores would probably be so costly that the increased sales wouldn't come close to making up for the expense. I could see it being used for other purposes, though. For example, the Evil Zionist Empire might use it on captured prisoners to make them talk.
I have heard about retail stores using subliminal messages, certain aromas, and other weird methods of influencing customers, but I doubt those things work.
What seems incredible in itself, though, is the fact that such a hormone has been isolated in the first place. Neuroscience is a fascinating field that is uncovering some of the deepest secrets about what it means to be human. (Sometimes I wish I'd taken that path instead of physics/engineering, but I'm satisfied with what I'm doing now, and hey -- you can't specialize in everything.)
2005-06-03 15:08 | User Profile
[QUOTE]Farfetched? Swiss and American scientists demonstrate in new experiments how a squirt of the hormone oxytocin stimulates trusting behavior in humans, and they acknowledge that the possibility of abuse can't be ignored. [/QUOTE] Angler, if oxytocin consistently works like that, even if it is not practical for use by merchants, consider how a stock broker or law enforcement might use and abuse it.
Stock broker: adds to coffee for client, masked by sugar, before discussing a major, risky, investment decision. :furious:
Cops: Bring in suspect. Give him have a drink of soda or flavored drink. (Laced with oxytocin) Use bad cop / good cop tactic during interrogation. The soft sell, good cop cajoles suspect, with the aim of getting him/her to waive rights, or that an early confession is a good idea. Not sure if a boost in oxytocin would over ride whatever hormone induces fear and distrust, given the benign environment of the Swiss test, but it's a spooky prospect.
Brave New World? shivers :angry:
Now, consider an appointed-not-elected-cabinet officer or adviser and a President . . . I wonder if you are on to something! :angry:
[QUOTE=Angler][url="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/trust_hormone;_ylt=An0zce7rkOK3EAEs_Npouxj737YB;_ylu=X3oDMTA0cDJlYmhvBHNlYwM-"]http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/trust_hormone;_ylt=An0zce7rkOK3EAEs_Npouxj737YB;_ylu=X3oDMTA0cDJlYmhvBHNlYwM[/url] --snip--[/QUOTE]
2005-06-03 15:21 | User Profile
Oxytocin (synthetic=Pitocin) is also the hormone used to induce labor in pregnant women. This is part of the substance behind the old wive's tale about how sex can help induce labor in late-term pregnancy, because, without getting too graphic, ejaculate contains oxytocin. Might also explain pair bonding to some degree, if you get my drift.
I agree the potential for abuse is large, but the sample size in the study leaves me underwhelmed. All other things being equal, I would think there would be an effect, but as AE mentioned, it would be hard for a jolt of Pitocin to override the natural adrenalin and other stress hormones a situation like a police interrogation would bring. The effect is probably more subtle than that, though that might make it more insidious, not less.
2005-06-03 21:30 | User Profile
[QUOTE=MadScienceType] I agree the potential for abuse is large, but the sample size in the study leaves me underwhelmed. All other things being equal, I would think there would be an effect, but as AE mentioned, it would be hard for a jolt of Pitocin to override the natural adrenalin and other stress hormones a situation like a police interrogation would bring. The effect is probably more subtle than that, though that might make it more insidious, not less.[/QUOTE] Following that train of thought, a total soft sell interrogation technique would lend itself to exploiting this. :censored: Of course, your other comments hint at a tender moment being the best time to get the wife to agree on the merits of buying that new set of irons . . .:smile: