You smell trustworthy - PhillyBlog

Ezra · #1 (**permalink**) 06-02-2005, 05:45 PM

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...ST02/TPHealth/

...Swiss researchers say they have finally isolated the secret: In oxytocin, we trust.

University students who inhaled the hormone in a nasal spray were discovered to be far more trusting of one another -- eager, in fact, to hand over money to strangers in investment deals.

...

The study already has some cynical scientists musing about whether political operatives will try to crop-dust crowds with oxytocin at rallies, whereas more hopeful researchers see the hormone as a potential boon in treating people with social phobias, or rare genetic disorders that cause children to trust everyone they meet.

Illiniwek · #2 (**permalink**) 06-02-2005, 05:55 PM

Guess what your next new car is going to smell like....

ChiefSalsa · #3 (**permalink**) 06-02-2005, 05:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Illiniwek

Guess what your next new car is going to smell like....

Chicks who drink alot of vodka find overweight Bush supporters to be dead sexy.

Illiniwek · #4 (**permalink**) 06-02-2005, 06:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChiefSalsa

Chicks who drink alot of vodka find overweight Bush supporters to be dead sexy.

I meant before you drive it off the lot.

WashWestDad · #5 (**permalink**) 06-03-2005, 11:31 AM

I may be naive, but think the potential for abuse is low. It would be difficult to make ordinary people trust those whom they shouldn't.

From the NY Times article:

Quote:

"To put it succinctly: I believe that oxytocin may help those people who have a pathologically low trust level," [Dr. Ernst Fehr, a professor of economics at the University of Zurich and the senior author of the paper] said in an e-mail message. "But you cannot induce a pathologically high trust level in normal people by giving them oxytocin.

"If I abuse your trust once or twice, you are not going to trust me a third time even if I give you a high dosage of oxytocin," he said.

The prospect of used-car dealerships infusing the air with oxytocin to increase sales is also far-fetched, Dr. Fehr said. "The half-life of oxytocin in the air (in a spray) is just two or three minutes," he said. "Thus you would have to administer a permanent rainfall of it. This looks impossible to me."

Ezra · #6 (**permalink**) 06-03-2005, 11:42 AM

"If I abuse your trust once or twice, you are not going to trust me a third time even if I give you a high dosage of oxytocin," he said."

HA! Never stops Republicans and they don't need chemical inducements.