You don’t love science, you love when science makes you feel good

Which is quite a bit like all the talk of how awesome oxytocin is. Case and point:

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Found on the infamous “I Fucking Love Science” feed. I read because sometimes there is good scientific information on it, such as this about watching lots and lots of porn and strinking gray matter (the kind you see in drug and alcohol addiction). Still, the Best Page in the Universe has already done the rant I would do IFLS in abstract.

Oxytocin is a pair-bonding hormone. It occurs between friends, social groups that are intimate, and sexual partners. It lasts after the dopamine high of an early relationship wears off.  So far, so good:  however, it is not pretty nor linked to just “maternal behavior” unless you include in  maternal behavior apparently includes increased capacity for violence, willingness to lie for a friend or a group, and a tolerance for being domestically abused. Perhaps even it increases subconscious personal racism.

Sociologically this is consistent with in-group/out-group behavior before we understood hormone interactions.  The point is that it’s not all cuddles and rainbows.  IFLS is a lot like oxytocin itself in this regard, we only like it when it makes us feel good.   Science, like oxytocin, however, does not and should not always be so happy go-lucky.

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One thought on “You don’t love science, you love when science makes you feel good

  1. Yep. Oxycontin helps to form and maintain bonds, and it shapes the experience and behavior in terms of those bonds. That is all. It does not ensure the social and moral quality of those bonds. It might the reason Charles Manson’s followers were always smiling. No cult following would ever be possible without it.

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