Oxytocin connects us to other people; oxytocin makes us feel what other people feel. And it's easy to cause people's brains to release oxytocin. Let me show you. Come here. Give me a hug.
Of course, if 40% of women need oxytocin to progress normally, then something is wrong with the definition of normal.
That's what falling in love really amounted to, your brain on drugs. Adrenaline and dopamine, oxytocin and serotonin. Chemical insanity, celebrated by poets.
As a midwife, I am immersed in Oxytocin day and night.
Oxytocin is the hormone of love. We share it when we have a good conversation, we share it when we make love, and when we hug, and BIRTH is the biggest brightest time of rich oxytocin-sharing.
When dogs and humans make eye contact, that actually releases what's known as the love hormone, oxytocin, in both the dog and the human.
To out-group-members, oxytocin makes you crappier - less cooperative and more preemptively aggressive. It's not the luv hormone. It's the in-group parochialism/xenophobia hormone.
It is important to understand that while oxytocin may be the hub of the evolution of the social brain in mammals, it is part of a very complex system. Part of what it does is act in opposition to stress hormones, and in that sense release of oxytocin feels good - as stress hormones and anxiety do not feel good.
When you massage someone, the levels of oxytocin go up in the brain, and oxytocin is one of the chemicals that drives attachment.
Oxytocin is lauded for how it promotes warmth, generosity, social bonding, cooperation, trust, and compassion.
Showing kindness causes oxytocin release in the recipient that motives him or her to be kind to others. You can start this virtuous cycle in the simplest ways, for example, by giving someone a hug. I send you a hug!
Oxytocin rocks the world.
It turns out that we literally don't empathize unless we're physically present - that the oxytocin, the famous "tend and befriend" hormone is not produced unless we're present with all five senses.
Oxytocin infusion increases generosity in unilateral monetary transfers by 80 percent [and] increases donations to charity by 50 percent.
Naturally, things are more complicated - those groovy, pro-social effects of oxytocin apply to how we interact with in-group members.
Give lab rats oxytocin and, according to that meme, they get better at talking about their feelings and sing like Joan Baez.
Oxytocin is a Teflon hormone - bad news rolls off it.
Like the oxytocin you get as a mom makes you forget everything constantly. And I'm a totally different person after having a kid.
