Funny. There are a lot of things this article made me think of in regards to aging, religious beliefs and behaviour, the grandmother effect in human social evolution, and others but never once did increased old age oxytocin make me think of advanced aged mad men running a church like they were half their ages and doing nothing but protecting and projecting corporate crap as righteousness, charity, and love.
As an aside, I would comment that very probably the reason more older folks spend time helping out are because less senior people are busy with young families and work obligations while the olders are past all that - they've done their bit with those endeavours. In short, they have more time and seek to use it well. I wouldn't use the yardstick of time to measure the generosity or charity of groups of people of different ages. There are so many other pertinent variables.
I'm not a neuroscientist but that seems kind of obvious to me. I wouldn't read too much into that aspect.
As for the oxytocin bit, perhaps we'll conclude some day that we're all full of bags of chemicals that control us unawares. Kind of spooky. What makes one person a serial killer and another an outstanding humanitarian, for instance. Is it 100% our choice who or what we are? If we could 100% choose, would we be the person we are at this moment or are we driven by unseen, unknown forces. Why do some people kill others on a whim for a few ounces of drugs while others sacrifice themselves for the benefit of others? Are we controlled by chemicals or is it all just the luck of the draw? Where we're born, who we're born to, which talents we're given, or do not possess, and how all those chemicals slosh around in our systems, influencing our lives in ways we're not aware of.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/2022 02:41PM by Nightingale.
Thanks nightie for bringing me back to earth. I read yesterday someone killed another person close to where I live over owing the victim $50. Thanks for your reply. It was awesome