Neurological Correlates

 

Hieronymus Bosch, The Seven Deadly Sins, Greed (Avarice, detail, modified)

How greedy the society you live in has to do with how many plant sterols people ingest.

Zak and Fakhar report that the endocrinological basis for trust scales up to the country level.

“. . .Using 31 measures of biological, social, and environmental factors associated with hormone levels for a sample of 41 countries,we find that two classes of factors are related to trust: consumption of plant-based estrogens (phytoestrogens), and the presence of environmental conditions that include measures of estrogen-like molecules.. . .”

Trust and greed are sort of opposite sides of the same coin. If you don’t trust, you’ll take before others take from you — greed. (My working definition of greed is selfishness, the “I got mine,” or individual benefit to the detriment of the group.) Trust is a cohesive factor in group bonding; oxytocin is the “trust hormone”.

Now, think of that for a minute. You can tell how paranoid an entire population will be by exogenous variables that would lead to endogenous “trust hormones”. Is this a country that is going to want to take over the world?

Phytoestrogens are found in soybeans and cannabis, according to Wikipedia (linked prior). So perhaps a “greedy” country, or at least one which is not a socially cohesive society, needs to eat more soybeans. Obviously, cannabis intake would diminish activity in general.

The abstract is after the jump:

Econ Hum Biol. 2006 Dec;4(3):412-29. Epub 2006 Sep 18. Neuroactive hormones and interpersonal trust: international evidence.Zak PJ, Fakhar A. Center for Neuroeconomics Studies, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA 91711-6165, USA. paul@pauljzak.com

Social attachment is vital for human health and welfare. Recent experimental evidence in humans has identified the role of neuroactive hormones, especially the peptide oxytocin, in mediating trusting behaviors. Herein, we test if the endocrinological basis for trust between humans scales up to the country level. Trust pervades nearly every aspect of our daily lives, yet survey data on trust show substantial variation across countries. Using 31 measures of biological, social, and environmental factors associated with hormone levels for a sample of 41 countries, we find that two classes of factors are related to trust: consumption of plant-based estrogens (phytoestrogens), and the presence of environmental conditions that include measures of estrogen-like molecules. Our findings provide preliminary evidence that interpersonal trust at the country level may be related to the intake of neuroactive hormones.

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