Oxytocin: a hormone secreted by the posterior pituitary gland; stimulates contractions of the uterus and ejection of milk. Commonly referred to as the love hormone or the cuddle chemical (i.e. post-smash booluvin) Writing in the New York Times, Nicholas Wade says:

As oxytocin comes into sharper focus, its social radius of action turns out to have definite limits. The love and trust it promotes are not toward the world in general, just toward a person’s in-group. Oxytocin turns out to be the hormone of the clan, not of universal brotherhood. Psychologists trying to specify its role have now concluded it is the agent of ethnocentrism.

New research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that oxytocin does increase preferences for people of one’s own ethnicity while simultaneously, but to a lesser extent, increasing prejudice against outsiders.

In another set of experiments, moral predicaments like deciding to deny one person access to a lifeboat to save five others were presented to Dutch men given either oxytocin or placebo. Those taking oxytocin spared men with Dutch names, while sacrificing those with Muslim or German names — on placebo, the name of the victim didn’t matter.

So simply put, oxytocin will increase your “love” or affinity for people in your “in-crowd.” This select group of people, however, can change from situation to situation…and I think there may be an hierarchy of groups that a person identifies with. Race > Nationality > Religion > Sex > Miscellaneous (classroom, department, neighborhood, etc)

For example, an earlier study by the same scientists found that oxytocin made men more likely to make financial decisions that favor members of their own group and also promoted defensive aggression against members of another group — but there was a catch. The in-groups and out-groups were teams established by the scientists for the experiment, not chosen by race or ethnicity.

Now this is another interesting usage of oxytocin. Men who have low empathy and social competence are given oxytocin to essentially make them “nicer.”

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