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Oxytocin, love drug, turns out not to be

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Surprise, surprise

In “Dark side of the love hormone” (New Scientist, 14 February 2012) Ed Yong reports,

It is time to revise this rose-tinted view. A new wave of studies is showing that oxytocin is neither the cause of our better angels nor a panacea for the world’s social ills. In fact, its effects vary greatly depending on the person and the circumstances, and it can tweak our social interactions for worse as well as for better. The “love hormone”, it turns out, has a dark side, one that is only just starting to come to light.

You must sign in to read the rest, but this isn’t a story that should surprise anyone. There is no love bug or love drug and never was. There is just plain old effort – or not.

Hat tip: Stephanie West Allan at Brains on Purpose

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