Oxytocin is the brain’s love hormone—without it, we might not ever fall in love or attempt monogamy. We know that the hormone releases “happy” feelings during events from nursing to orgasm, and is the reason why people feel a chemical “bond” with a partner. And now, scientists have found that the hormone can also boost the sex appeal of complete strangers.
A University of Bristol study tested 96 men and women in a double-blind test by spraying them with either oxytocin or a plecebo. The subjects were then asked to rate pictures of 48 men and women for attractiveness, and 30 for trustworthiness. Sure enough, the participants that had sniffed the love hormone tended to rate the random people in the pictures as better looking or more trustworthy.
Psychologist Angeliki Theodoriduou, who led the study, found that regardless of their gender or mood, the people under the influence of oxytocin were more likely to like the strangers in the pictures.
While the researchers didn’t look at why oxytocin has such pull, they reckon the hormone’s effect on the brain is so strong that it suppresses any fearful emotions people would normally feel.
Jennifer Bartz, a psychologist at Mount Sinai Medical School, pointed out to ABC that there could also be important sex differences in people’s judgments that the study didn’t examine. This study had both sexes rate pictures of men and women—but do men really rate another man’s attractiveness the same way women do? (We doubt it).
There’s one company that is already selling this so-called love potion as a “liquid trust” formula. With a 60-day return policy, Vero Labs bottles oxytocin like perfume and promises to help people build “relationships that were never possible before.” But before you start spraying yourself with this, you should know that getting a massage or simply eating food can boost oxytocin levels naturally.
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Image: flickr/ HAMED MASOUMI
April 16th, 2009 at 10:13 pm
how can i find the stuff for this
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:55 am
[...] Related Links: Love Potion Number 10: Oxytocin Spray Said to Increase Attraction [...]
April 23rd, 2009 at 4:00 pm
Hehe, they are sure to ban this stuff soon so buy it now while you can and stock up!
July 30th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
An upgraded simulacrum of oxytocin could accelerate Annedroid/Mandroid intimacy a la Bostrum in the immediate post-Singularity 2050s…but could Sapiens survive the satori of the GIE [Great Intermechanical Encounter]? For 2nd Law parsimony, we ‘perspectives’ place our bets on the Holodeck!
September 8th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
I don’t see how they could possibly ban this as it is a hormone naturally produced in the human body.
Also there has been very few inconclusive experiments performed on this so lets not all jump to conclusions.
October 6th, 2009 at 6:59 am
hi i m chirag patel i want this spray how can i buy and how many prize please give me deatial
thanks
October 21st, 2009 at 7:53 pm
Hi chirag i bought this before from buy-oxytocin.com I think it cost me about $30