You SMELL trustworthy.
We all know of people that simply smell, or positively reek of being untrustworthy (this blog being the exception, of course).
But now scientists have discovered that nasal spray can develop trust — a fascinating development, just waiting to be abused by politicos, time-share salesmen, multi-level-marketing promoters and any person, government or corporation you can think of that would benefit from such a quick fix.
Swiss researchers think they have found answer to the ages-asked question: why do you trust someone. In a word: oxytocin. The Globe and Mail reports:
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 results suggest trust can be bottled and used to forge commercial relationships. Oxytocin levels have long been known to spike with sexual climax or influence the production of mothers’ milk, but the new study suggests they are also “the biological basis of trust among humans.”
“We find that intranasal administration of oxytocin causes a substantial increase in trusting behaviour,” a research team said.
The team was led by Dr. Michael Kosfeld of the University of Zurich, whose findings appear in the journal Nature.
“Of course, this finding could be misused to induce trusting behaviours that selfish actors subsequently exploit,” the team wrote. “However our findings may have positive clinical implications for patients with mental disorders.”
And of course, you can spin all kinds of best-case scenarios and worst-case scenarios for this. Democrats: if John Kerry had used this spray at his rallies he’d be President. Republicans: if Richard Nixon had this spray Chuck Colson and Pat Buchanan wouldn’t be on the warpath about Deep Throat today. Teenagers: if you use this spray secretly on your parents they’ll actually trust you (but it may require a couple of bottles). Or some of these:
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.
Oxytocin — not to be confused with Oxycontin, the increasingly popular painkiller gaining a reputation as “hillbilly heroin” — has long been linked to sex, reproduction and motherhood.
Mammals produce it in parts of the brain that regulate social behaviour. The Swiss team pointed out that the hormone lets wild animals “overcome their natural avoidance of proximity.” Farmers use the chemical to get cows to produce more milk.
For humans, the hormone has been produced synthetically since the 1950s, used by obstetricians to help induce labour.
Wait: so if I use this I’d not only a trust someone, but also give birth to a baby? More:
Naturally occurring oxytocin is more fun, but has its pitfalls. In fact, some sex counsellors warn new lovers not to jump into bed with one another, as orgasms increase levels of oxytocin and can thus impair judgment about a mate’s character. So in a sense, trust has always been associated with the hormone. But news has now arrived of oxytocin’s more lucrative applications.
Prediction: if this comes out commercially huge orders will be placed by CBS and Newsweek.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.