Trust via chemistry
Scientists have created a “trust” serum that could help in the treatment of autism or phobias but could also be a dangerous weapon in the hands of confidence tricksters.
Oxytocin, a hormone used to stimulate contractions during labor, also appears to be a trust-builder when inhaled, says the team led by Michael Kosfeld of Switzerland’s University of Zurich. The report on the hormone, known in its synthetic form as Pitocin, appears in Thursday’s journal Nature.
“Oxytocin seems to reduce anxiety about interacting with strangers,” says study co-author Paul Zak, director of the Center for Neuroeconomic Studies at Claremont Graduate University in California. “But it’s not some sort of evil mind-control drug — spraying it in the environment won’t affect anybody.”
In his commentary, Damasio worries that “political operators will generously spray the crowd with oxytocin at rallies.” Others disagree. “Fear not,” says sociologist Amitai Etzioni of George Washington (D.C.) University in an e-mail to USA Today. Etzioni has written extensively on trust’s role in society.
“A chemical may move us over a bit in one direction or another,” he says. “But the notion that it will make us trust someone we otherwise would not is way beyond what the study shows or can be expected.”
Reference - Nature, USA Today, Times Online
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