The Evolution of the Love Hormone

How oxytocin promotes care in humans and other animals.

Last week on the Nature & Nurture Podcast I interviewed the legendary Dr. C. Sue Carter, the world’s leading expert on oxytocin and the neurobiology of love. Find the podcast on YouTube and Spotify.

This week I published an article in Psychology Today overviewing what I learned from our conversation and related readings about the evolution of oxytocin and the neurobiology of love. Key points:

• Oxytocin promotes love, care, and social bonding in humans and other animals.

• Oxytocin is as old as mammals and first evolved to facilitate the basic muscle contractions of birth and lactation.

• Evolution co-opted this system for parental care into the love hormone we know today.