Morality and Empathy

[game_byrd]

I was doing some "research" this morning on Peter Petrelli and what makes him such a nice guy. Where does a person's empathy come from? Why do they feel it? Is it selective? What other emotions are commonly paired with empathy?

I came across this TEDtalk: Paul Zak: Trust, morality and oxycotin. It starts slow, but is very good. Oxycotin creates

Comments

[means2bhuman]

Thank you for sharing this! So freaking cool!
During my searches through medical disorders to understand Gabriel/Sylar better, I did note that he would have lower OXYTOCIN (not oxycotin like you have above ;) I had no idea it had anything to do with morality and empathy to such degrees.

I love the hug rule! I know for a fact it works. I hug my mama all the time and it actually boosts my writing creativity and output. In order to finish some of my advent calendar pieces I go unload to her and come back to write, all chipper. Smiling is another thing that boosts it. It drives people nuts sometimes that I am so moralistic and trustworthy to the point where it hurts me but I'm glad to say I'm high in oxytocin. You have no idea how rewarding it is to see people smile or to help them out or relieve their pain. I've always been empathetic to individuals so that's so cool to see that I am (and that Peter and I have something in common!)

Can someone explain to me the con with pigeons he was talking about? I didn't get it :( Was it that the man who'd lost the necklace and returning to give them the reward would write Ted the $200 check and Ted was supposed to give the finder of the necklace (the con) $100 as his half?

This makes me wonder just how deep Gabriel/Sylar studied brain chemicals in S1. He's used trust with Maya and Candice (at the last minute there), possibly with Molly, Sandra, Mohinder and Zane with intent to con or kill. Of course that's a characteristic of a psychopath - hence why people think he is one, but even more interestingly I wonder if he's using the knowledge (of the chemical). Of course trust is part of conning people, we don't need to know about trust/empathy/oxytocin to manipulate someone with a lie, but think of how much more dangerous someone would be if they knew. Hell, that's not even intuition - its a cheat! Clever Sylar.

Sylar's got repressed testosterone, he's got it freaking stored away and its very obvious he has lots of it. Interesting, too, that made me instantly think with worry "Oh no! Does that mean Peter has less?" It would explain why he is more over-all loving and "feminine" physically (I hate to say that). Sylar's lack of oxytocin is, thankfully, just a learning curve in need of the right teacher and, I imagine, its a survival technique.

This also kind of makes my Sylar muse feel very guilty for abusing Peter's trust and empathy and mocking his morality :( but it can't be helped.

[means2bhuman]

And I'm very glad your stress is decreasing and your happy chemicals increasing! :) Always a good thing.

[game_byrd]

Does Peter have less testosterone than Sylar? Yeah, probably. I don't see that as anything to 'oh no!' over. Everyone exists on a range from archetypically male to archetypically female. I don't think there's any special virtue to being way over on the ends (or in the middle, as far as that goes). Sylar has more testosterone poisoning, so sad for him. ;)

As for the con ...
Me and you decide that we're going to go out and make some money. We get a plastic necklace that looks real fancy, complete with a fancy jewelry case. It costs us $10. I put it in my pocket. We drive to a gas station. I go inside to the bathroom while you sit in the car with a cell phone. I come out and walk up to the counter, telling my tale to the attendant and showing him the 'found' jewelry. You, out in the car, watch until you're sure I've had a chance to get some of the story out and perhaps even there's a signal like me going to the door and then changing my mind and coming back to talk some more. Then you call the attendant on the phone. You tell him that you'll be there in a half hour with a $200 reward. Your part is now done. I, inside the store, tell the attendant that I will leave the jewelry with him so he can collect the full $200, if only he will give me $100 now. The attendant imagines that he will soon have $200 in his hand and so sure! he gives me the $100. He thinks he's still made $100 out of the deal. I leave, leaving the attendant holding the $10 plastic pearl necklace and because I picked an attendant who was young and gullible, he doesn't know these aren't real pearls.

I walk about to my car with the $100 and you and I drive away. In the same day, we hit every gas station in range, then never again for six months or a year. Gas station attendants have a high turnover rate, after all. The gas station attendant has just allowed himself to be robbed of $100. And as a confidence scam that doesn't use violence or threat, it's not prosecuted very harshly even if we are caught.

Here is a good list of confidence tricks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_confidence_tricks

Here in Oklahoma, the most common con scams I've run across are the White Van Scam (where a truck claims to be selling excess furniture or restaurant-quality steaks, or oranges, or whatever) and the Gas Can Scam (although for this, it's usually a tow truck, cab fare or money for a new tire instead of merely the cash for gas, that they'll ask for). For the tire variant, they hang around outside of a Wal-Mart approaching people until they get run off, upon which they simply get in their fully functional car and go to the next Wal-Mart to repeat. The Gas Can Scam is almost always female around here.

[game_byrd]

Oh, and woops! about the huge and consistent misspelling on my part.

Oxytocin. Got it!