Trust in a Bottle

flosofl writes "The BBC has a report on oxytocin and its ability to skew our trust levels. 'The participants in the study played a game, in which they were split into "investors" and "trustees." The investors were then given credits and told they could chose whether to hand over zero, four, eight or 12 credits to their assigned trustee.' Some of the investors were given oxytocin via nasal spray. The results were surprising: 'Of 29 investors who were given oxytocin, 13 (45%) displayed "maximal trust" by choosing to invest highly, compared to six (21%) of the 29 investors who were given the dummy spray.' When the trustee was a computer, there was no difference between the two test groups."

"Control" group?

[drsmack1]

When the trustee was a computer, there was no difference between the two test groups."

Except they were *way* cooler....

Great. Just great.

[Anonymous Coward]

Now, we're going to be inundated with junk mail drenched in pheromones.

**NEW** From RONCO!

[drsmack1]

Oxytocin scented heavy duty condoms; sold at truck stops everywhere!

I bet they sprayed some on their research paper

[Snarfangel]

The lengths some people will go to to get published.

Re:Too Small of a Test

[Joe Random]

For this to really be worked out you need to do multiple test on a much larger scale.

Trust me, 29 people is more than enough to obtain statistically-significant results. Now where's my Oxytocin....

Re:Such Hogwash

[Anonymous Coward]

That's oxycontin -- we're talking about oxytocin.

Different thing altogether.

Although with a jar of both I imagine you could have a heck of a party.

At the end of which, (wait for it), you'll probably need some OxyClean.

Detection of oxytocin in crowds

[dhammabum]

According to the wikipedia [wikipedia.org]:

in lactating (breastfeeding) mothers, oxytocin stimulates myoepithelial cells, causing milk to be ejected into the ducts of the mammary glands.

So, if you are worried about being affected by this hormone in public gatherings, just stand near a group of lactating women. If they all start leaking milk, you've been hit.

Re:Too Small of a Test

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyway, there's a great Newton book - Defying Gravity - which was released. I've got a copy. Best thing is the typo on the spine.

I'm not sure you're making such a good case for this book...

Re:Corporate uses

[sheddd]

Yes, I fully agree with the above... Personally, I think that a law should be passed to make the use of this new chemical and it's relatives illegal except for medically important purposes (i.e. for medical research or with a prescription).

Umm hello... how about the most important use, getting nerds laid?