Oxytocin

Norway has the highest level of trust in the world. According to a survey in 2021, 77% of Norwegians trust their government, as opposed to an average 47% of people in other high-income countries. We can take this further – Nordic countries in general have held the highest levels of trust for decades (OECD, 2022):

• 80% of Norwegians trust NRK – their most popular online news brand (Statista, 2022).
• Iceland ranks number 1 on the Global Peace Index (IEP, 2022).
• And if you were to ask the Danes, “Can you trust most people?” 78% will say “yes” (Svendsen, 2018, p. 17).

And get this – trust makes for a better economy (Svendsen, 2018, p. 12)!

There are several complex reasons that people attribute to Nordic countries enjoying this level of trust: They haven’t been at war since Viking times; their culture thrives on voluntary associations; and because they trust each other, they have a much healthier attitude toward redistributing wealth. However, there is also another reason that they trust each other, and that’s because trust makes you happy!

Introducing oxytocin

“We discovered that this molecule in the brain called oxytocin is released when someone trusts us and induces us to reciprocate trust.” (Paul Zak AKA Dr. Love, cited in Penenberg, 2010)

Oxytocin is the hormone that spikes in mothers and babies during birth. It spikes when we hold children, when we are attracted to others, when we hear music, when we have human contact – it even spikes while we’re interacting virtually with loved ones.

Dr Love calls oxytocin “social glue” – because trust bonds us all together (Penenberg, 2010).

But what does it do?

Oxytocin is also known as the love drug – the thinking being that when it is released, our motivation changes from finding (and eating) food, to the need to reproduce.

It has been shown to reduce food intake with the suggestion that this then encourages the pursuit of social bonding (Fessler, 2003, p. 11).

Is it a love drug?

Here’s the thing about hormones … they’re a little bit yin and yang. Oxytocin amplifies brain activity, which boosts what someone is already experiencing. So, it may make us share trust, empathy, and bonding cues, but it could also help us to feel envy, bias, and anxiety. It’s typically produced in the hypothalamus. However, it can also be made in another part of the brain, the dorsolateral bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, which plays a part in the body’s stress response. This stress response, and associated oxytocin production, can be triggered by social anxiety, depression, and addiction … among other things. So, no – it’s not always a love drug.

“Most current neuroscientific studies of oxytocin indicate that oxytocin doesn’t just always make people happier or more pro-social or willing to bond. Rather, oxytocin seems to act like a volume dial, turning up and amplifying brain activity related to whatever someone is already experiencing. That’s essentially what a lot of different recent studies are converging on for oxytocin.” (Robert C. Froemke, cited in Owens, 2021)

Let’s go back to Dr. Love …

Paul Zak has conducted multiple experiments on oxytocin. In one, he found that people donated 56% more money after taking a shot of oxytocin via a nasal spray than those who had taken a placebo (Lin et al., 2013). He also showed that oxytocin increases empathy toward issues in television ads.

We obviously can’t go around spraying people with hormones or hugging them – so there is a challenge for you if you want to encourage this hormone (in a positive way) with your content. The best way is to take your viewers to a state of mind that reminds them of loved ones or babies:

If you want to find out more, take a look as Paul Zak’s Ted Talk on trust, morality and oxytocin.

The takeaway

Oxytocin helps us to trust and empathise with one another. And as we trust and empathise with each other, we produce more oxytocin. Trust and empathy create a better society. As a brand, if you want to build trust, use concepts and images that help your customer produce oxytocin or just be a genuine caring brand.

If you have ten minutes – watch this film about trust and the Danish – it’s fabulous: