Oxytocin scientist studies what makes humans good and evil

[JackLuis]

Better living thru chemistry!

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What drives Zak’s hunger for human blood is his interest in the hormone oxytocin, about which he has become one of the world’s most prominent experts. Long known as a female reproductive hormone – it plays a central role in childbirth and breastfeeding – oxytocin emerges from Zak’s research as something much more all-embracing: the “moral molecule” behind all human virtue, trust, affection and love, “a social glue”, as he puts it, “that keeps society together”.

(Can you believe this is only two sentences?)

Meanwhile, Zak says, we should all be doing more to boost oxytocin in benign ways. He recommends a minimum of eight hugs a day (pets count, too); massage and even soppy movies seem to work: he has done the blood tests. Interactions on Twitter and Facebook seem to lead to oxytocin spikes, offering a powerful retort to the argument that social media is killing real human interaction: in hormonal terms, it appears, the body processes it as an entirely real kind of interaction.

Oxytocin is not Oxycontin, like Rush Blimpman takes to get high. If Rush took oxytocin maybe people would trust him more? Naa! who am I kidding?

 

[AllardChardon]

Just wanted to say that this is a very interesting article to add to my growing interest in the wonders of oxytocin. I had my share, during my reproductive years, with four births and eleven years of breastfeeding. It is nice to know, it is never too late for more.