The Moral Molecule: The Source of Love and Prosperity

by Paul J. Zak, Paul J. Zak (Read by)

Overview

In The Moral Molecule Professor Paul Zak proves that a single molecule accounts for why some people give freely of themselves and others are coldhearted, why some people cheat and steal and others you can trust with your life, why some husbands are more faithful than others, and why women tend to be more generous—not to mention nicer—than men. Oxytocin is that molecule. Sometimes called the love or “cuddle” hormone because it causes mothers to care for offspring, this chemical messenger is, Zak discovered, the key to moral behavior—not just in intimate relationships but in business dealings, in politics, in society at large.

From the bucolic English countryside to the highlands of Papua New Guinea, from labs in Switzerland to his campus in Southern California, Zak recounts his extraordinary stories and sets out, for the first time, his revolutionary theory of moral behavior. And as any engineer will tell you, understanding the basic mechanism is the first step toward improving a system’s output: In this case, the implications are stunning—we are better than most people believe.
Accessible, amusing, and electrifying, The Moral Molecule is nothing less than the origins of our most human qualities—empathy, happiness, the kindness of strangers—revealed. With Gladwell’s brevity and Pinker’s resonance, The Moral Molecule will take readers on a wild, eye-opening ride.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781455892273
Publisher:	Brilliance Audio
Publication date:	05/10/2012
Edition description:	Unabridged
Product dimensions:	5.37(w) x 7.50(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Paul J.Zak, Phd, is a professor of economics, management, and psychology at Claremont Graduate University. He is the founding director of Claremont’s Center for Neuroeconomics Studies. His Psychology Today blog is also titled The Moral Molecule. He lives in Southern California.

Paul J. Zak , Ph.D., is Professor of Economic Psychology and Management at Claremont Graduate University. As the founding director of Claremont’s Center for Neuroeconomics Studies, he is at the vanguard of neuroeconomics, a new discipline that integrates neuroscience and economics. He has a popular Psychology Today blog also called The Moral Molecule, and has been featured in many articles, including those in The New York Times, Scientific American, Fast Company, and Time. He lives in southern California.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Vampire Wedding ix

Chapter 1 The Trust Game: From Short Cons to the Wealth of Nations 1

Chapter 2 Lobsters in Love: The Evolution of Trust 28

Chapter 3 Feeling Oxytocin: The Circuit That Brings Us HOME 51

Chapter 4 Bad Boys: The Complications of Gender 76

Chapter 5 The Disconnected: Victims of Abuse, Bad Genes, and Bad Ideas 102

Chapter 6 Where Sex Touches Religion: Stepping Outside the Self 130

Chapter 7 Moral Markets: Liquid Trust and Why Greed Isn't Good 158

Chapter 8 A Long and Happy Life: Mimes Creating Bottom-up Democracy 184

Notes 213

Acknowledgments 221

Index 225

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"This is an important book. Empathy, cooperation, trusting, heroism, stinginess, skepticism, anger, tough mindedness: Paul Zak unpacks these and other deeply human feelings with his pioneering research into brain chemistry and his keen journalist eye—exposing the dignity (and treachery) within our common human nature. You will never think about lobsters, gossip, 'butt slapping' footballers, middle management, or the recent housing bubble fiasco the same way again. It's a 'must know' and a great read."
—Helen Fisher, author of Why We Love

Editorial Reviews

"The Moral Molecule is an engaging popular account of Mr. Zak's decade of intense research into how oxytocin evolved for one purpose-pair bonding and attachment in social mammals-but had the bonus effect of cementing a sense of trust among strangers."
Michael Shermer, The Wall Street Journal

"One of the best popular science books I've read this year."
Brian Clegg, Popular Science

"Explaining his use of cutting-edge research to undercut Gordon Gekko's infamous mantra ('Greed is good'), Zak is engaging, entertaining, and profound."
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Stimulating...he demonstrates the intriguing possibility that oxytocin orchestrates the generous and caring behavior we endorse as moral."
Publishers Weekly

"What's great about reading this book is not just that you feel yourself relieved at shedding the notion that our behavior is purely selfinterested and not just that you get a clear idea of how this clearly important molecule works but that you're entertainingly taken through Mr. Zak's experiments, thus getting a terrific view of the scientific process."
Library Journal

"Paul Zak's investigations into the best things in life are inspired, rigorous, and tremendous fun. We need more daring economists like him."
Tyler Cowen, author of The Great Stagnation and An Economist Gets Lunch

"Paul-Zak tells the remarkable story of how he discovered and explored the biochemistry of sympathy, love, and trust with the narrative skill of a novelist. Philosophy, economics, and biology have never been so entertaining."
Matt Ridley, author of Genome and The Rational Optimist, on Zak's oxytocin research

"An ancient mammalian molecule prods us to bond with others. Paul Zak offers a most engaging account of this important discovery, bound to overthrow traditional thinking about human behavior, including economics and morality."
Frans de Waal, author of The Age of Empathy

"Zak's scientific quest is to understand what makes people trust one another."
Kayte Sukel, Big Think

"Zak is an expert on how trust is a key ingredient to the success of economies and trust is related to oxytocin. It is highly entertaining and thought provoking."
Cyril Morong, The Dangerous Economist

"This is an important book. Empathy, cooperation, trusting, heroism, stinginess, skepticism, anger, tough mindedness: Paul Zak unpacks these and other deeply human feelings with his pioneering research into brain chemistry and his keen journalist eye-exposing the dignity (and treachery) within our common human nature. You will never think about lobsters, gossip, 'butt slapping' footballers, middle management, or the recent housing bubble fiasco the same way again. It's a 'must know' and a great read."
Helen Fisher, author of Why We Love

From the Publisher

Zak (Economic Psychology and Management/Claremont Graduate Univ.; Moral Markets: the Critical Role of Values in the Economy, 2008, etc.) explores a surprising link among neuroscience, morality and economic success. The author explains how an encounter with anthropologist Helen Fisher in 2000 transformed the direction of his work. He was dissatisfied with the notion that calculating rational self-interest was the basis for individual decision-making. Fisher suggested that he examine the role of brain chemistry in economic as well as intimate relationships—e.g., the way in which oxytocin (the "cuddle hormone") facilitates mother/child bonding at the time of birth and provides the basis for trust later in life. Although he was at first ridiculed by colleagues, Zak began a series of experiments based on the "Trust Game." The game has many variations, but basically all subjects are given $10 for participation and then divided into two groups. Group A gets the opportunity to give part of their money to someone in group B, with the understanding that the amount would be tripled. How much the original donor gives is based on his expectation of the extent to which it will be reciprocated. Zak added the twist of testing donors and recipients for oxytocin levels and found a high correlation. He believes his research to have demonstrated that oxytocin is "the key to moral behavior." Because it triggers the release of the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin, it creates a "motivational pathway" for empathy, intimate bonding and trusting social relationships that give people emotional satisfaction. This influences their economic decisions, a process the author calls a "physiological version of the Golden Rule." Explaining his use of cutting-edge research to undercut Gordon Gekko's infamous mantra ("Greed is good"), Zak is engaging, entertaining and profound.

Kirkus Reviews