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Subscribe to RSSIt’s not exactly Love Potion No. 9, but giving a guy squirt up the nose of a “cuddle” hormone may make him sweeter, according to new research announced in the journal Psychological Science.
In a study conducted at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Columbia University, 27 healthy men in their 20s were tested on their social competence, then were given either a nasal squirt of oxytocin or a placebo.
A naturally-occuring hormone, oxytocin is known to regulate prosocial behavior in both animals and humans and is said to be responsible for everything from bonding with baby to better orgasms. For women, oxytocin plays a major role in birth, lactation and maternal bonding. In men, it's linked to sexual arousal. It also helps with trust and pair ponding in both genders.
As a result, it’s been dubbed the “hormone of love” or the “cuddle chemical.”
Upon being given a blast of either oxytocin or a placebo, the men in the study were asked to perform an “empathic accuracy task,” such as watching videos of people discussing emotional events from their lives.
Move over, Monday Night Football. Hello, Lifetime channel!
After watching the videos, the men rated how they thought the people in the videos were feeling, then researchers tallied the results. The less socially adept men who were given the so-called “hormone of love” performed significantly better.
The guys who already had high scores in social proficiency -- the easygoing extroverts -- were just as empathetic whether they had the oxytocin or the placebo.
“Our data show that oxytocin selectively improves social cognition in people who are less socially proficient, but had little impact on more socially proficient individuals,” said Dr. Jennifer Bartz, assistant professor of psychiatry at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and lead author of the study told Science Daily .
Does this mean some kind of anti-shyness drug is on the way? Or how about a nasal nudge for insensitive boyfriends? Don’t hold your breath.
The oxytocin findings will be used to help treat people with disorders like autism, a disorder that predominantly affects men, says Bartz.
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Leave a Comment:
You'd better send me some- before my wife orders a case. Hey, if it works...
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Somebody find Jherek Carnelian! He needs a 55 gallon drum of this stuff.
call it gaynase
I see my comments have been deleted. So it's OK for a woman to call a man a jerk, but a man cant call a woman a b*tch or even hope for a nasal spray that will do the same for women? Typical sexist double standard.
To the moderator/author of this article. If you cant take it, then don't dish it out. Men deserve the same dignity and respect women demand for themselves.
HAL9000-1718832
I 2nd your motion as hard as I can. FnCK the MODS!
this a horrible porduct it basically said "this how we can make men docile sheep". if this product was aimed towards changeing women there would be a huge uproar about it is a tool to control women
Hey, I'm ready to try the stuff! I know what I can be like when everything starts getting to me. Tell you what: send out enough for a six month test. I'll try it on myself, my son-in-law, and my granddaughter's boyfriend. At the end of six months, come pick up the rest of it. If the ladies won't let you near it, it works.
I think they should have something like this for both genders. That coming from a woman. When a woman is being a 'b*tch' as HAL put it, sure, she could have a squirt now and then too. It's not meant to change men completely, just to make them more EMPATHETIC. They even said this drug worked on WOMEN, but held a more maternal side effect for the feminine users. This thing even included the words Better Orgasms and Sexual Arousal. You'd think that would be enough for anyone to not fuss about the slight prejudice of the title.
Well I will not argue or even debate against ignorance any longer. One can not win against it, the ignorant see through clouded glass you know. Good Luck arguing with the ignorance of society Terry. Oh by the way, 'rdcottage', I wouldn't want to try anything called a "Porduct" either, sounds painful. By the way, women do need something to change us sometimes, we can be completely inhuman with our revenge, sneaky natures, and spitefulness, but not all women are like that. Just like all men are not insensitive, uncaring, cheating, jerks.
A bit late on a reply, but as a woman, I don't like the word jerk being applied to anyone (well, maybe Rove or Cheney), even though I know a few "jerks" (men AND women). Although, it's scary these days how we jump on one word and make a bigger deal about it than is necessary.
Look at politics these days - we might as well run robots - hey, Craig Ferguson, can we borrow Geoff? Well, he's a skeleton robot, but still could beat half of the extreme people running for office. Don't these "scientists" have anything better to work on?
HAL 9000 since when do men not get respect? I don't think men have cornered the market in prostitution. How many battered men's shelters are out there? or not many men getting raped either.
So spare me with the petty whiny men don't get any respect BS.
I would love to here the results, if any, on autistic patients. I would be happy letting Oprah discuss the men vs. women thing.