Empathy Drug? UC Researchers Find Parkinson’s Pill Also Makes People Less Tolerant Of Inequality

[IDemo]

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – A drug that is used to treat Parkinson’s disease has also been found to make patients less tolerant of inequality and engage in more equitable behaviors.

According to a statement from the University of California, researchers at UC Berkeley and UCSF studied the effects of tolcapone. The drug prolongs the effects of dopamine, which is a chemical associated with reward and motivation in the prefrontal cortex.

Researchers performed a double-blind study of 35 people, where they received either tolcapone or a placebo on two separate visits. Participants then played a simple game where they divided money between themselves and a recipient they didn’t know.

The researchers found those with tolcapone divided the money in a “fairer, more egalitarian way,” the university statement read.

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/03/19/empathy-drug-uc-berkeley-ucsf-researchers-parkinsons-pill-less-tolerant-inequality/

I could see this as one pharmaceutical that the RW would fight tooth and nail against.

[Thinkingabout]

1. I hate to say this about a drug which may help those who have Parkinson's but

this drug must be in the food chain as wide spread as the number of people who are less tolerant of inequality.

[IDemo]

2. The double-negative makes it a badly written headline

But the gist of the article makes it plain that the effect is to make people more empathetic, not less. Thus, my note about RW'ers not being happy with it.

[Thinkingabout]

4. I am not disregardng your headline, I make note of very wide spread inequality.

It was interesting in the fact perhaps one who may not have normally had the hiate, etc leading to inequality but after taking the drug has changed. It is like the person with dementia may have been combative before their dementia and docile and those who was docile before may be combative afterwards.

It just seems the inequality issues grows everyday, would like to blame it on a certain drug and remove the availability in order to get the inequality stopped.

[Trillo]

3. Should all cops be required to take it?

I say that somewhat in jest, even though there is a serious underlying basis. Had the city staff of Ferguson been on it, would they have had a little more compassion toward their African American neighbors?

[smirkymonkey]

5. Very interesting!

It should be in the water supply as empathy is something that this country seems to have in short supply.

[daredtowork]

6. Lurking in the background here is a biomedical approach to rising intolerance

Another OP noted that the daily requirement for vitamin D might be set too low, and a number of chronic diseases have been related to low levels of vitamin D. In a society of indoor "knowledge workers" and basement computer geeks, vitamin D insufficiency could be quite widespread. What if lack of vitamin D tipped the balance that led to greater intolerance...

Then, knowing that, should society do anything to tip that balance...? Put more vitamin D in the water, for example...?

Plenty of science fiction novels (mostly dystopian) have been written along those lines, but I can almost hear the flurry of pens hitting paper (or is it keyboards clattering away?) now that the future seems to be coming on at hyperspeed.