IT SOUNDS like a boon for con artists: a hormone that makes people trust you. Just give them a crafty whiff of it, and hey presto! – they’re giving you all their money with no questions asked.
That is one possibility suggested by a study showing that three puffs of a nasal spray containing the hormone oxytocin makes people more likely to trust strangers with their money. The study centred on a game in which an “investor” player gives money to an anonymous “trustee”, whom the player never meets face to face. There is no obligation for the “trustee” to give…
