A potion to be taken on trust

[emad]

Tim Radford, science editor
Thursday June 2, 2005
The Guardian

Swiss scientists have realised the snake oil salesman's dream: a potion that increases trust. One whiff of a brain-penetrating hormone called oxytocin, and you would trust him with your wallet, if not your life.

Oxytocin plays a role in the bonding between mother and suckling infant; it helps you feel that you "know" someone you have met before, and it plays a powerful role in romantic love and desire.

Now, Swiss scientists report in Nature today, a few molecules in the nostrils will make you more inclined to trust a business partner.
Ernst Fehr of the University of Zurich and colleagues tested 194 healthy male students in a series of sophisticated games of risk and trust: the players were given notional currency and could choose to place all of it, some of it or nothing in the hands of trustees who would then decide how much to hand back after the stake had been tripled.

Some players were given a whiff of oxytocin, some inhaled a vial of air. None of the players knew what they were sniffing and none knew whether the trustees were trustworthy or not: they had to make a decision. Those who sniffed oxytocin showed a greater propensity to trust someone than those who simply inhaled air.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1497244,00.html

[Bob3]

1. Wall- mart has ordered tons of the stuff.

The GOP has commissioned the lab to produce a that can be sprayed from airplanes in time for the 2008 elections.

"Can't afford to pass up this chance" an unnamed GOP spokesman said "It'll be like imprinting little birds - they will all do what we tell them to do - most do now but a little insurance never hurt"

Sales of gas masks and other air filtering devices have increased in New York and in the New England area.