Astral Codex Ten

oxytocin

3 min read

oxytocin

Article

oxytocin is a recurring concept in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 2 times across 2 issues between May 28, 2021 and August 13, 2024. The archive places it in contexts such as “Bregman suspects oxytocin (the love hormone)”; “some system other than dopamine (oxytocin?)“. It most often appears alongside A Game of Thrones, Africa, African Americans.

Metadata

  • Category: Concepts
  • Mention count: 2
  • Issue count: 2
  • First seen: May 28, 2021
  • Last seen: August 13, 2024

Appears In

Source Context

Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.

Your Book Review: Humankind
May 28, 2021 · Original source
Bregman subtly alludes to the elephant in the room at this point by writing "And now for the elephant in the room". For the friendliest species on the planet we sure seem to do the most unfriendly things. Bregman suspects oxytocin (the love hormone). The domesticated silver foxes had a much higher level of it than their wild cousins (amongst a whole host of other things). Oxytocin is linked to caring for children, and romantic love, but Bregman is much struck by one Dutch research group which has found a link to intergroup conflict. At least, that's what their abstracts say, the graphs in their first paper look more like oxytocin makes you love the outgroup more as well, just not as much as it makes you love your ingroup. In their second paper their five experiments all show oxytocin promotes in-group regard, with only one showing out-group derogation. Let's maybe not pop the champagne on having solved "how the kindest species can also be the cruelest" quite yet.
Inline links: first paper, second paper
Why Does Ozempic Cure All Diseases?
August 13, 2024 · Original source
Why? Isn’t addiction just the extreme version of normal wanting? Apparently not. None of these anti-addictive drugs affect wholesome rewards like the feeling of a job well done or a child’s smile. Just drug addictions, and a few compulsive behaviors like porn and gambling. Maybe the job well-done and the child’s smile get implemented partly through some system other than dopamine (oxytocin?), or maybe these medications lop off some extreme part of the reward distribution that only addictive drugs ever reach in real life. But why? Why did God give your brain a special lever that only porn and cocaine can pull?