The Economist features a story on the Sex life of Voles, normally not the most thrilling of subjects. This one’s a keeper, though, with some interesting speculation about How Monogamy Happens in humans.
Vasopressin, one of the hormones released during prarie-vole whoopie-makin’, seems to be the chemical trigger for imprinting monogamous pair-bonding. Block its release, and the normally faithful voles become swingin’ pick up artists, bouncing from one night stand to one night stand. Inject other swinging prarie rats with it, and they pick up the vole’s classic faithfulness.
If tying recognition to dopamine production can train rats to be monogamous, what other dopamine production ties could be used to govern behavior?
Interesting stuff, eh? js0n and I realized, after a few milliseconds of thought, that thirty years of research will no doubt find the perfect application for this information: corporate pride in a caplet. The hard part about keeping good workers isn’t the benefits or the pay, really… It’s getting them to really love thier job… Perhaps patriotism injections…