Weird "love" hormone makes you hate THEM - Robert Sapolsky
Summary
TLDRThis script delves into the intriguing role of oxytocin, a hormone with a 100-million-year history linked to bonding in mothers and infants, and its evolution in species forming pair bonds. In humans, it's associated with trust, generosity, and social connection. However, it also intensifies 'us versus them' tribalism, as highlighted by studies showing its influence on pro-social behavior and empathy, which can be biased towards those perceived as part of one's own group. The discussion underscores how our brains quickly categorize others and the potential for both positive and negative societal implications.
Takeaways
- 🌟 Oxytocin, a hormone present for over 100 million years, plays a crucial role in mother-infant bonding and social connections across species.
- 🐭 In lab rats, the absence of oxytocin leads to a failure in maternal attachment, highlighting its importance in bonding.
- 💑 About 60 million years ago, oxytocin evolved to facilitate pair bonding in species that mate for life.
- 🙌 In primates, including humans, oxytocin is associated with trust, generosity, and a sense of connectedness.
- 🐶 Around 20,000-30,000 years ago, humans and dogs co-evolved, and direct eye contact between them can trigger oxytocin release, enhancing their bond.
- 🧠 Oxytocin improves facial expression recognition and can make people more trusting and generous, but it doesn't universally increase pro-social behavior.
- 🚫 Oxytocin's effects are selective, making individuals nicer only to those they perceive as part of their 'in-group', potentially intensifying tribalism.
- 🧪 A study in the Netherlands demonstrated that oxytocin can increase in-group bias, as people were less willing to sacrifice individuals from out-groups in moral dilemmas.
- 🧠 Brain scans reveal that the amygdala, responsible for fear and aggression, activates more readily in response to faces perceived as 'others'.
- 👶 By 10 months old, children begin to differentiate between 'us' and 'them', reflecting deep-seated tribal instincts.
- 🔧 These biases are fast and unconscious, but can be influenced by experiences and environment, showing that they are not entirely fixed.
Q & A
What is the primary function of oxytocin in most species?
-Oxytocin is primarily associated with bonding between mothers and infants, facilitating their connection and attachment.
How does the absence of oxytocin affect maternal behavior in lab rats?
-If lab rats have their oxytocin genes knocked out, they fail to attach to their newborns, indicating that oxytocin is crucial for maternal recognition and attachment.
What new role did oxytocin acquire around 60 million years ago in certain species?
-Oxytocin began to be used in species that form pair bonds and mate for life, helping to maintain these long-term relationships.
How does oxytocin function in primates, including humans?
-In primates, oxytocin is associated with trust, generosity, and a sense of connectedness, going beyond its initial role in maternal bonding.
What is the unique adaptation involving oxytocin between humans and dogs?
-Over the last 20,000 to 30,000 years, humans and dogs have evolved together, and mutual gazing between a human and a dog can lead to the secretion of oxytocin in both, enhancing their bond.
What does the study on the runaway trolley problem reveal about the influence of oxytocin on moral decision-making?
-The study shows that oxytocin does not universally increase pro-social behavior; instead, it intensifies feelings towards those already considered part of 'us,' potentially leading to more hostile behavior towards 'them.'
How does oxytocin affect the perception of people from different cultural backgrounds in the Netherlands study?
-Oxytocin makes Dutch participants more likely to sacrifice individuals with German or Muslim names in the runaway trolley scenario, suggesting it amplifies in-group favoritism rather than universal kindness.
What role does the amygdala play in the unconscious perception of 'others'?
-The amygdala, associated with fear and aggression, activates automatically in response to faces perceived as belonging to 'other' groups, indicating an unconscious bias.
How does the fusiform cortex contribute to the perception of faces from different social groups?
-The fusiform cortex, responsible for face recognition, activates less strongly for faces from 'them' groups, suggesting that these faces are not processed as thoroughly or valued as those from the 'us' group.
What is the function of the anterior singulate in relation to empathy and pain perception?
-The anterior singulate is involved in feeling and sharing the pain of others. However, it activates less when observing someone from a different racial or social group experiencing pain, indicating a reduced empathetic response.
How can long-term experiences and exposure to diversity influence the brain's automatic responses to 'us' and 'them'?
-Long-term experiences, such as growing up in a racially mixed neighborhood or having relationships with people from different backgrounds, can reduce the automatic activation of areas like the amygdala in response to 'them,' suggesting that these biases are not fixed and can be altered.
Outlines
🧬 Oxytocin's Evolutionary Role
The paragraph discusses the hormone oxytocin, which has been present for around a hundred million years and is fundamental for bonding between mothers and infants across various species. It details how oxytocin has evolved in usage, from facilitating pair bonding in species that mate for life to fostering trust, generosity, and a sense of connectedness in primates. A fascinating example is the mutual oxytocin secretion between humans and dogs, which strengthens their bond. However, the paragraph also points out that oxytocin's effects are not universally pro-social; it can make individuals more biased towards their in-group, potentially exacerbating 'us versus them' dynamics.
🔍 Oxytocin's Impact on Social Bias
This section delves into how oxytocin can intensify social biases. It references a study from the Netherlands where oxytocin's influence on moral decision-making was tested using a hypothetical 'runaway trolley' scenario. The study showed that while oxytocin may increase trust and generosity, it does not universally make people nicer; instead, it can make them more biased towards those they already consider part of their in-group. The paragraph highlights how this hormone can strengthen tribalistic tendencies, making individuals more hostile towards out-group members.
🧠 The Brain's Us vs. Them Dichotomy
The paragraph explores the neurological basis for the 'us versus them' mentality, discussing how the brain quickly categorizes individuals as part of the in-group or out-group. It mentions the amygdala's role in automatically associating out-group members with fear and aggression. The text also describes how the fusiform cortex and anterior cingulate, areas of the brain associated with face recognition and empathy for pain, respectively, can be less active when perceiving out-group members. This automatic bias can manifest from a young age and has implications for social interactions and prejudices.
🌐 Overcoming Tribalistic Biases
The final paragraph emphasizes the adaptability of human biases and the potential for change. It suggests that long-term experiences, such as growing up in a racially mixed neighborhood or having interracial relationships, can alter the brain's automatic responses to out-group members. The paragraph concludes with a discussion of how symbols, like sports team affiliations, can temporarily override racial biases, indicating that the brain's categorizations are not fixed. It ends with a call to awareness and a reminder of the power of manipulation, especially by those in positions of authority.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Oxytocin
💡Pair bonding
💡Primates
💡Dogs
💡Pro-social behavior
💡Tribes and tribalism
💡Amygdala
💡Anterior singulate
💡Fusiform cortex
💡Heuristics
Highlights
Oxytocin is a hormone that has been around for over 100 million years and plays a role in bonding between mothers and infants across species.
Around 60 million years ago, oxytocin adapted to help species that pair bond, such as those that mate for life.
In primates, oxytocin is also associated with trust, generosity, and a sense of connectedness.
Oxytocin has evolved further in the last 20,000 years to also facilitate bonding between humans and dogs, causing both to secrete oxytocin when they interact closely.
Oxytocin strengthens tribal or in-group bonds but doesn’t necessarily make people more pro-social toward outsiders.
A study in the Netherlands showed that oxytocin made participants more likely to sacrifice someone from an out-group, like Germans or Muslims, rather than someone from their own culture, in moral dilemma scenarios.
Oxytocin reinforces existing biases, making people more empathetic and generous to those they consider part of their 'in-group' while increasing hostility toward 'out-groups.'
The brain's amygdala activates unconsciously when people see the face of an 'other,' contributing to fear and aggression.
Even as early as 10 months old, children begin showing in-group and out-group biases.
The fusiform cortex, responsible for facial recognition, activates less when viewing faces from an out-group, making those faces less memorable.
The anterior cingulate cortex, involved in empathy and pain perception, shows reduced activity when people witness pain experienced by someone from an out-group.
In the U.S., police officers are more likely to mistake a cell phone for a gun if the person holding it has a different skin color, highlighting unconscious bias.
Long-term exposure to different races or cultures, such as growing up in a mixed neighborhood, can reduce the amygdala's automatic fear response to out-group members.
Sports team loyalty can override racial or ethnic biases in brain activation, with fans showing more immediate emotional responses based on team affiliation rather than skin color.
Manipulating in-group and out-group boundaries is a powerful tool for dictators, who use this to dehumanize opponents and justify violence.
Transcripts
again like we're such a weird species so
there's this hormone
oxytocin and best bet is it's been
around for a hundred million years and
what it is about in every species out
there it has something to do with
mothers and infants bonding with each
other connecting with each other and you
could even show it like with Lab Rats if
you knock out genes that you need to
generate oxytocin mothers don't attach
to their newborn rat PFF they don't
recognize and things of that sort so
that's great and then I don't know 60
million years ago uh folks came up with
a new use of oxytocin it's used in
species that pair bonds that mate for
life and it's oxytocin that keeps them
together and then you get the primates
and we're using it for trust and
generosity and a sense of connectedness
and all of that which is totally cool
and then then the most bizarre thing
imaginable is like I don't know 20,000
30,000 years ago people and dogs kind of
evolved with each other so they hang out
with each other now and like we we give
our food away to these wolves and and
spend our time and love him and all that
and in the last 20,000 years it's
evolved that if you have a dog and
you're really close with them and you're
sitting there looking in his eyes and
feeling his dog soul and all of that you
secrete oxytocin and he secretes
oxytocin it's a 100 million year old
hormone and if the scientists either
give you oxytocin or give the dog you
stare in each other's eyes
longer it's like what a crazy adaptation
you know 20,000 years ago no doubt they
had some sort of meeting saying these
these wolf things that were getting kind
of attached to what are we what are we
going to do should we evolve a new
hormone in the brain nah let's use oxy
oxytocin it's like you like your kids
oxytocin you like the person you're
married to oxy sure you sit there with
your dog and you'll both secrete
oxytocin that makes you more connected
um here's a really interesting thing
though about
oxytocin
like with like tells you something about
the the
geopolitical world okay so oxytocin it
makes you nice it makes you more
trusting it makes you more generous you
get better at reading facial expressions
you like if everybody was given oxytocin
more of it this would be a totally
Wonderful World until you look a little
more closely and oxytocin does not make
you more pro-social does not make you
nicer to your fellow humans it makes you
nicer to only some fellow humans and
this was this spectacular study there's
there's this philosophy problem The
Runaway rly a a train has broken from
its tracks it's out of control it's
going to hit and kill five people is it
okay to push one innocent person on the
track to they get killed but you save
five other people can you kill and like
philosophers have been dealing with this
one forever so what they did this was in
Netherlands and some psychology student
volunteers and they gave him a version
of this runaway trolley problem would
you sacrifice this person to save that
person's life and what you see is
psychologically do you press a button
70% of people say yes I would I would
kill this one innocent person to save
those F do you push him with your hands
on the
track only about 40% of people say
they'd be willing to do that does the
person fight back before you push him on
the track only about 20% so it's the
exact same situation but people give
very different answers because the
emotional stuff so they introdu the
motion in a very interesting way in here
so here's this person do you you kill
him to save five other people and they
gave a name they gave a name to the
person and in a third of the cases they
gave the name of like some typical
person from the Netherlands Dirk or
Peter or something like that and the
rest of the time uh they gave the person
a name from one of two cultures that
people the Netherlands have strong
unconscious hostility towards either
German names from World War II or Muslim
names so sort of the the European frenzy
about that you're sitting there now and
like you ask somebody well you g to save
Dirk's life and the next person you g to
save Wulf gang's life or you g to save
ahmad's life or what and you know it
doesn't have much effect give people
oxytocin and they don't know it and what
you see is all these people from the
Netherlands nobody's willing to push
Dirk onto the track it's a fellow
countrymen of course not I couldn't do
that but oh my God Otto and and Muhammad
you are GNA push them on the track in a
second or so whoa oxytocin doesn't make
you nicer it makes you nicer to people
who already count as in us if it's a
them you're much worse to them you're
more hostile to them you're more
aggressive you're more likely to cheat
in a game against them oxytocin isn't
about good feelings it's about making
your tribal connectiveness stronger and
whoa is that an interesting different
way for a hormone to be
working wow and and so it's a it's
amplifying already uh the the tribalism
uh intuitions or preset behavior that
that we have deep in us exactly which
means that in our brains there is this
split in there like as big as like the
split between continents or other that
our brains make really fast and
unconsciously and all of that between is
this person one of us or are they not
and really quickly generating that and
if it's one of us you like them more and
you'll sacrifice yourself for them more
and you think they're better humans and
when they do something awful it's oh
they're just tired they're stressed
whereas if it's one of them that does
something awful it's what can I say this
is what they're like they've always been
this way they'll always be this way and
wow our brains have a split line in
there by the time kids are 10 months old
they're already beginning to do this and
when you show somebody a face you put
them in a brain
scanner and you're flashing up faces and
you flash up the face of one of those
others one of those others that you know
and a part of the brain having to do
with fear and aggression part of the
brain called the amydala
activates automatically in about 75% of
people you see the face of an other and
the Amala activates okay because you
know that everyone in your society says
they're rotten people because they do
this and they believe that or you read
the news no this is not you sit there
and you've learned some of these
prejudices this is the amydala does this
automatically in under one tenth of a
second you do not even consciously know
yet who you're looking at and already
this part of the brain that's about
worrying and aggression and maybe I
should do something preemptive and
there's these amazing studies now I I
don't know uh how much this is the case
in Morocco in terms of some us them
things but a gigantic problem in the
United States is you have a police
officer um who in this case is white and
there's some person who may or may not
be a criminal who happens to have dark
skin and over and over again we get
these situations where the person is
holding a cell phone and the police
decide that's a gun and before you know
it you've shot them that kind of thing
and you do these studies you put police
in brain scanners and like if the person
has a skin color different from yours
you're more likely to mistake a cell
phone for a handgun you're more likely
and again in a tenth of the second um so
these are images flashing in a in a
screen and the the person is is is an
MRI scanner ex experiment exactly
they're they're beautiful done and they
get even worse at that point there's a
there's a part of the brain called the
fusiform cortex which primates evolved
what does it do it recognizes faces if
you're a primate you got to pay
attention to who's who in your social
world and we can do that with hundreds
of faces and this is a part of the brain
that does that and you see somebody's
face and your Fus of form activates in a
tenth of a second if it's the face of
somebody from a them group your Fus form
doesn't activate as much their face
doesn't count as much as a face you
don't remember it afterward as
accurately and then there's a part of
the brain called the anterior singulate
which has to do with pain and feeling
somebody's pain like poke your hand with
a with a pin and your anterior singulate
activates in the tenth of a second you
have to sit there and watch someone you
love have their hand Pok with a pin and
your anterior singulate activates it's
about empathy it's about feeling
somebody else's pain so stick people in
a brain scanner and they're looking at a
little film there of a hand having a
needle poked into it and when the needle
goes in oh my God everybody their
interior singulate because they're
imagining how much this hurts and all of
that if the hand has a different skin
color than your
own the anterior singul it doesn't
activate as much so it depends whose
face whose pain whose skin color all of
that whoa we are we are as tribal as
baboons but we just have it show up in
really different ways than your average
other primate out there so this must
have had the Adaptive advantages in the
for for our ancestors I I suppose this
US versus them right there's a reason
why why you have that sure and it's you
know the
psychologists have this term for it a
heuristic it's a rule that you have in
your head which you apply automatically
really fast because it's efficient it
makes things easier o if something is
rustling in the bushes there um assume
it's a buffalo and you're in trouble o
if just very rapid assessments and
sometimes that's great sometimes it's
life-saving or it it saves you a lot of
time trying to figure out okay is this
person competent or not and should I
give the job and and you know they they
just said a word with an educated tone
of voice or something like that and
you're heris yeah okay so I've just jump
to an assumption another way of saying
that is this is how your brain has
stereotypes and prejudices where you
prejudge somebody because sometimes
appearance or things like that or you
know the amazing thing is you look at a
man with his head covered and the way
it's covered you know who you think
should be controlling access to Temple
of the mount in
Jerusalem because all you got to do is
look at the guy's hat and you know where
he's coming from all you have to do is
you you look at a human who's wearing a
cowboy hat or they're wearing a sari and
you already know do they think cows are
good to eat or cows are good to worship
whoa just these little symbols of stuff
and it's efficient it saves you time
until it turns out that you're being
Prejudice and like you're judging
somebody in a tenth of a second by stuff
like skin color and like all these other
signals here or what kind of accent or
what foods they eat and thus what their
body smells like and like all of that
stuff and yeah it's just automatic
because it could be very efficient to do
that and it could be a total disaster um
so it has yes sorry go ahead yeah no no
no go ahead no I it has been adapted to
us when back in the times through the
millions or or hundreds of thousands of
years where we were living in a
completely different uh uh lifestyle but
today in today's world things have
changed and uh what what do we do with
this should should we be more aware of
our biases yeah oh completely um the one
good thing with that is I think I said
you know in the United States you take
white volunteers and you stick them with
the brain scanner and like you show them
the face of an African-American man and
like 75% of people their their amigdalas
will activate
you say oh my God that's the most
depressing thing I've ever heard of this
is hopeless all then you say hey what
what's up with the 25% of people where
that doesn't happen and you check out
their histories and they grew up in a
neighborhood that was racially mixed
they had a romantic relationship with
somebody of A different race at some
point or other like that okay it's a
good longterm experience could change
stuff like that but even better this is
like the greatest like study on
Earth you put a person in the brain
scanner and they're a crazy football fan
like they have their home team that they
hate and they've got the the enemy team
who are who are sleeping with Satan as
far as they're concerned and and all of
that so now you're flashing up pictures
of different faces and each one is
wearing a cap with the logo of either
your football team were theirs the other
side and your brain doesn't care anymore
about their skin color all it cares
about is which symbol they're harrying
there and in a tenth of a second they
flash up a face wearing the symbol of
the other and five minutes ago you were
doing the same study and if the skin
color was different it activated and now
boom all it takes is something like that
and it's a
completely whoa so totally depressing we
break the world into us and them but
either very good news or very bad news
it's easy to manipulate us is to who
counts as an us or a them and sometimes
we could be manipulated in a
second and you know every good dictator
what they know how to do is how to make
the thems that everybody hates seem so
different and so that they hardly even
count as human they're like they're like
Vermin they're like Oar roaches they're
like rodents they're like cancers
they're all of that that they're so
different that like you look at their
face and your brain doesn't process it
as a face anymore and you do that and
you're a dictator who has a whole bunch
of people who are happy to go out and
kill them because they don't even count
as the same species as you it's uh it's
a very effective thing if you enjoyed
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