A new study sheds light on the dark side of oxytocin, the "love hormone."
The drug MDMA (commonly known as ecstasy or Molly) can make you feel like you love literally everyone and everything that has every existed on this beautiful, beautiful planet, but does it make you act that way? A study out of the Netherlands has found a link between ethnocentrism and oxytocin — the so-called "love hormone," associated with orgasm and cuddling, and triggered by MDMA use — which encourages social bonding within one's group, to the possible exclusion of outsiders.
Researchers at the University of Amsterdam found that, in a hypothetical scenario where participants were asked to choose five of six people to save from drowning in a lifeboat, men with oxytocin in their systems were more likely to leave out men with foreign-sounding names in favor of those who seemed Dutch. Does this mean having an orgasm could make you racist, too?
(PSA: My name is Molly. I am not a controlled substance that makes you want to dance, nor am I a controlled substance that possibly makes you racist. I am a non-controlled, non-racist human. Nice to meet you.)
[h/t TIME]
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