carrot red
07-25-2005, 09:32 PM
Is Hormone 'Trust In A Bottle?' (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/06/01/tech/main698969.shtml)
It sounds more like a plot for another Batman sequel, but it could be a reality one day.
Scientists have developed a spray that induces instant trust. Who will be the first to abuse it?
Trust in a bottle? It sounds like a marketer's fantasy, like the fabled fountain of youth or the wild claims of fad diets.
Yet that's what Swiss and American scientists demonstrate in new experiments with a nasal spray containing the hormone oxytocin. After a few squirts, human subjects were significantly more trusting and willing to invest money with no ironclad promise of a profit.
The researchers acknowledged their findings could be abused by con artists or even sleazy politicians who might sway an election, provided they could squirt enough voters on their way to the polls.
It sounds more like a plot for another Batman sequel, but it could be a reality one day.
Scientists have developed a spray that induces instant trust. Who will be the first to abuse it?
Trust in a bottle? It sounds like a marketer's fantasy, like the fabled fountain of youth or the wild claims of fad diets.
Yet that's what Swiss and American scientists demonstrate in new experiments with a nasal spray containing the hormone oxytocin. After a few squirts, human subjects were significantly more trusting and willing to invest money with no ironclad promise of a profit.
The researchers acknowledged their findings could be abused by con artists or even sleazy politicians who might sway an election, provided they could squirt enough voters on their way to the polls.