Paul Zak: Trust, morality - and oxytocin

http://www.ted.com Where does morality come from -- physically, in the brain? In this talk neuroeconomist Paul Zak shows why he believes oxytocin (he calls it "the moral molecule") is responsible for trust, empathy, and other feelings that help build a stable society.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Paul Zak
• Brain
• xytoin
• neuroscience
• empathy
• feelings
• trust
• Culture
• Medicine
• Morality
• Science
• TED
• TEDTalk
• TEDGlobal

[delatorre5827]

This could be a cute for depression am I right?

[zirbat16]

haha this was awesome

[Vagitarian01]

@Jeffersonwazright I'm not sure what to consider myself... I am neither pro-war or pro-peace, in a general sense. I believe both have their merits. While I can fantasize with you on Utopia, I believe that such a reality will never come to pass. We're better off wishing for a world free of disease, or of hunger. Those things are lower on the wishlist than Peace, but are also, foolhardy goals. Good luck granting any of those wishes.

[Jeffersonwazright]

@Vagitarian01 Correct. We have untrustworthy feelings for a reason. It is estimated that 4% of people are what we call "sociopaths" and our alarms need to go off when they are around. I am anti-war and pro-peace and pro-love and all of that utopian stuff but I don't think we should go changing our brain chemistry at any given moment.

[Vagitarian01]

@Jeffersonwazright I'm sorry if I don't understand your point, but are you trying to say that Happiness isn't something that we should distribute freely? If so... -__- wat.

[pasqualebrow1230]

I want this video on my S5200 unit.

[Emptused]

@daddyslackful 6:35 "...all without altering mood or cognition." From wikipedia: Cognition.

"In science, cognition refers to mental processes. These processes include attention, remembering, producing and understanding language, solving problems, and making decisions."

Nothing in his experiments then demonstrated that oxytocin was "making" people give money or be more trusting -- rather the influx of oxytocin was correlated with increased rates of "trust." Posit: Trust became more rewarding.

[daddyslackful]

This is daft. In reality, it is merely the ages old argument whether or not we have free will. "Oh, my brain made me do it". Laughable.

[helmus2000]

@TheChrisMedico you should watch serenity ( the movie )

[Jeffersonwazright]

@AarontheCurious Ethnic groups do not steal bikes....poor people do. Your comment is silly and absurd. While I agree that they need to quit bringing foreign people in here and expecting it to work out great, your comment is absurd as a response to this particular video.