And finally, here's what explains the incredible levels of envy we see in Willytex, Jim (Doctordumbass), Nabby, Judy, and others here:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19640508 Intranasal administration of oxytocin increases envy and schadenfreude (gloating). Shamay-Tsoory SG1, Fischer M, Dvash J, Harari H, Perach-Bloom N, Levkovitz Y. Author information Abstract BACKGROUND: Humans have a strong social tendency to compare themselves with others. We tend to feel envious when we receive less valuable rewards and may rejoice when our payoffs are more advantageous. Envy and schadenfreude (gloating over the other's misfortune) are social emotions widely agreed to be a symptom of the human social tendency to compare one's payoffs with those of others. Given the important social components of envy and gloating, we speculated that oxytocin may have a modulating effect on the intensity of these emotions. METHODS: Fifty-six participants participated in this double-blind, placebo-controlled, within-subject study. Following the administration of oxytocin or a placebo, participants played a game of chance with another (fake) participant who either won more money (envy manipulation), lost more money (schadenfreude manipulation), or won/lost equal amounts of money. RESULTS: In comparison with the placebo, oxytocin increased the envy ratings during unequal monetary gain conditions involving relative loss (when the participant gained less money than another player). Oxytocin also increased the ratings of gloating during relative gain conditions (when the participant gained more money than the other player). By contrast, oxytocin had no effect on the emotional ratings following equal monetary gains nor did it affect general mood ratings. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that the oxytocinergic system is involved in modulating envy and gloating. Thus, contrary to the prevailing belief that this system is involved solely in positive prosocial behaviors, it probably plays a key role in a wider range of social emotion-related behaviors. ________________________________ From: TurquoiseBee <turquoi...@yahoo.com> To: "FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Wednesday, April 2, 2014 11:22 AM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Are TMers Oxytocin Junkies? And here's what explains Judy Stein -- enhanced levels of oxytocin from TM in conjunction with Borderline Personality Disorder: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21115541 Oxytocin can hinder trust and cooperation in borderline personality disorder. Bartz J1, Simeon D, Hamilton H, Kim S, Crystal S, Braun A, Vicens V, Hollander E. Author information Abstract We investigated the effects of intranasal oxytocin (OXT) on trust and cooperation in borderline personality disorder (BPD), a disorder marked by interpersonal instability and difficulties with cooperation. Although studies in healthy adults show that intranasal OXT increases trust, individuals with BPD may show an altered response to exogenous OXT because the effects of OXT on trust and pro-social behavior may vary depending on the relationship representations and expectations people possess and/or altered OXT system functioning in BPD. BPD and control participants received intranasal OXT and played a social dilemma game with a partner. Results showed that OXT produced divergent effects in BPD participants, decreasing trust and the likelihood of cooperative responses. Additional analyses focusing on individual differences in attachment anxiety and avoidance across BPD and control participants indicate that these divergent effects were driven by the anxiously attached, rejection-sensitive participants. These data suggest that OXT does not uniformly facilitate trust and pro-social behavior in humans; indeed, OXT may impede trust and pro-social behavior depending on chronic interpersonal insecurities, and/or possible neurochemical differences in the OXT system. Although popularly dubbed the 'hormone of love', these data suggest a more circumspect answer to the question of who will benefit from OXT. ________________________________ From: TurquoiseBee <turquoi...@yahoo.com> To: "FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Wednesday, April 2, 2014 11:17 AM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Are TMers Oxytocin Junkies? Maybe this explains why Nabby hates Buddhists so much, why Buck has such vehemence for those he calls "non-meditators," and why other long-term TMers seem so homophobic. Their TM-enhanced oxytocin levels make them biased towards people they perceive as their "group." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21220339 Oxytocin promotes human ethnocentrism. De Dreu CK1, Greer LL, Van Kleef GA, Shalvi S, Handgraaf MJ. Author information Abstract Human ethnocentrism--the tendency to view one's group as centrally important and superior to other groups--creates intergroup bias that fuels prejudice, xenophobia, and intergroup violence. Grounded in the idea that ethnocentrism also facilitates within-group trust, cooperation, and coordination, we conjecture that ethnocentrism may be modulated by brain oxytocin, a peptide shown to promote cooperation among in-group members. In double-blind, placebo-controlled designs, males self-administered oxytocin or placebo and privately performed computer-guided tasks to gauge different manifestations of ethnocentric in-group favoritism as well as out-group derogation. Experiments 1 and 2 used the Implicit Association Test to assess in-group favoritism and out-group derogation. Experiment 3 used the infrahumanization task to assess the extent to which humans ascribe secondary, uniquely human emotions to their in-group and to an out-group. Experiments 4 and 5 confronted participants with the option to save the life of a larger collective by sacrificing one individual, nominated as in-group or as out-group. Results show that oxytocin creates intergroup bias because oxytocin motivates in-group favoritism and, to a lesser extent, out-group derogation. These findings call into question the view of oxytocin as an indiscriminate "love drug" or "cuddle chemical" and suggest that oxytocin has a role in the emergence of intergroup conflict and violence. ________________________________ From: TurquoiseBee <turquoi...@yahoo.com> To: "FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Wednesday, April 2, 2014 9:50 AM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Are TMers Oxytocin Junkies? >From http://www.chopra.com/files/newsletter/Apr12/Apr12-Meditation.html What happens in the brain during meditation? The emotional effects of sitting quieting and going within are profound. The deep state of rest produced by meditation triggers the brain to release neurotransmitters, including dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphins. Each of these naturally occurring brain chemicals has been linked to different aspects of happiness: ... Oxytocin (the same chemical whose levels rise during sexual arousal and breastfeeding), is a pleasure hormone. It creates feelings of calm, contentment, and security, while reducing fear and anxiety. ________________________________ From: TurquoiseBee <turquoi...@yahoo.com> To: "fairfieldlife@yahoogroups.com" <fairfieldlife@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Wednesday, April 2, 2014 8:50 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Are TMers Oxytocin Junkies? You've gotta admit...it *does* explain the group apologetics thang. It also explains FFL cliques... http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/39595/title/Oxytocin-Boosts-Dishonesty/
