Trust Hormones And Investing
July 11th, 2009. Published under Science. No Comments.
In a game put together by the researchers of oxytocin, a liquid trust hormone, the participants played either the role of an investor or trustee. If you played an investor, it was your job to decide how much money to hand over to the trustee. After the financial stake multiplied four fold, the trustee had to decide how much money to give back to you.
Those investors who were given a sniff of the powerful trust hormone oxytocin before the game of trust and money began were far more likely to hand over money than those playing the game as part of the control group who got a placebo instead.
There was no effect when the trustee was replaced with a computer. This tells us that oxytocin makes it easier for people to interact socially as well as more likely to take risks and bond with other people. Used properly, salesmen, bankers, and those in middle management could have very productive effects from this newly discovered hormone.
Oxytocin increased the investors level of trust, but had no effect on the behavior of the trustee. “Trustee behavior is dominated by a principle of reciprocity, for which oxytocin seems irrelevant,” Antonio Damasio, a neurology professor at the University of Iowa College of Medicine in Iowa City, writes in an accompanying article in Nature.
The brain has regions associated with trust and bonding with others, and scientists believe that oxytocin could have effects as a type of neurotransmitter in this area of the brain. When a person takes stock of a situation, making a decision about money, trust, love, or their personal holdings, this could trigger neural responses in the brain, including the release of oxytocin.
“Particular social mechanisms and social cues that foster trust, like a smiling face of the other person, may perhaps lead to increases in oxytocin levels and therefore to higher probabilities of trust,” said Kosfeld, the economist.
So how can we put this chemical to use in society? What uses could a liquid trust hormone have in our business life, love life, and personal life? What could you do if the odds were stacked just a bit in your favor or if more doors were open to you? A car salesman might put more people into cars, increasing his commission as well as the local economy. His family would have a better life, and he might find himself quickly in line for a promotion. We all have something we have been working toward. Trust may be the only thing standing in the way.
Aydan Corkern is a writer and you can visit his sites for more information:
http://www.liquid-trust.info/
http://www.liquid-trust.info/liquid-trust-spray.html