Oxytocin & Vasopressin

Trade is the foundation of economic activity because it gives the parties to a transaction a strong incentive to specialize in making the items that the other stranger as if he were a member of the family. Humans are the only species to have developed such a degree of social trust that they are willing to let vital tasks be performed by individuals who are not part of the family. This set of behaviors, build around reciprocity, fair exchange and the detection of cheaters, has provided the foundation for the most sophisticated urban civilizations, including those of the present day.

Reciprocity, and an ability to calculate the costs and benefits of cooperation, underpin our social life, writes the economist Paul Seabright, “making a reasonable for us to treat strangers as though they were honorary relatives or friends.” It is remarkable that this behavior evolved at a time when primitive warfare was at its most intense and people had every reason to regard strangers with deep suspicion. Strangers can still be dangerous, yet in the right circumstances we habitually trust them. “The knowledge that most people can be trusted much of the time to play their part in the complex web of social cooperation has had dramatic effects on the psychology of our everyday life,” Seabright says, making it possible “to step nonchalantly out of the front door of a suburban house and disappear into a city of ten million strangers.” Without this innate willingness to trust strangers, human societies would still consist of family units a few score strong, and cities and great economies would have had no foundation for existence.

How might this greater level of trust has arisen? Two hormones, known as oxytocin and vasopressin, are emerging as central players in modulating certain social behaviors in the mammalian brain. The hormones are generated in the pituitary gland and at the base of the brain and have effects both on the body and in the brain. Oxytocin induces both labor in childbirth and the production of milk. Its effects on the mind, at least in experimental animals, have the general property of promoting affiliative or trusting behavior, lowering the natural resistance that animals have to the close proximity of others. ~ Page 163

Human societies long ago devised an antidote to the freeloader problem. This freeloader defense system, a major organizing principle of every society, has assumed so many other duties that its original role has been lost sight of. It is Religion. ~ Page 163