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Showing posts with the label decision making

Choosing Right or Wrong: Simply a Matter of Hormones

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Where does our sense of right and wrong come from? One researcher says it comes from the production of a specific hormone in our brain, called oxytocin. Could it be this hormone that gives you the urge to want to help someone begging on the street? Conversely, is it a lack of this hormone that causes the unfeeling actions of murderers like Ted Bundy? Paul Zac, Ph.D., a professor and neuroeconomic researcher, recently completed a series of studies which determined that oxytocin is responsible for our innate feelings of right and wrong. Oxytocin is an interesting hormone to study because it is only produced in the brains of mammals. It has been commonly associated with a mother’s innate need to nurture and care for offspring. Many of it’s effects are still being studied, as well as the things that can help produce, or inhibit production, of this all-important hormone. What can oxytocin do? It produces feelings of trust, empathy, and generosity. In general, it begins production when