The Molecular Basis of Attraction
Like Duolingo, but for The Molecular Basis of Attraction. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.
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Key ideas in The Molecular Basis of Attraction
- Oxytocin increases the brain's sensitivity to social information regardless of valence
- Oxytocin promotes ethnocentrism and in-group favoritism
- The hormone amplifies the 'volume' of social signals like facial expressions or tone of voice
- The hormone can trigger defensive aggression or exclusion toward perceived out-group members
- Oxytocin does not create positive feelings out of thin air but intensifies existing social perceptions
- Attraction and bonding mechanisms are biologically tied to tribal boundary maintenance
- Oxytocin's role as a social salience amplifier rather than a simple 'love drug'
- The dual nature of oxytocin regarding in-group and out-group dynamics
- Oxytocin does not override rational judgment of character
- Oxytocin fails to increase cooperation with untrustworthy partners
- Social context and reliability modulate hormonal effect
- Oxytocin's role as a social salience amplifier
- Oxytocin amplifies the emotional impact of social comparison
- Oxytocin increases envy in competitive contexts
- Oxytocin facilitates schadenfreude
- In-group and out-group dynamics
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives The Molecular Basis of Attraction the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
When oxytocin levels are high, how does an individual typically treat members of their own 'tribe' or social circle?
Get it right to open this lesson and 29 more in the app.
Where The Molecular Basis of Attraction takes you
Move beyond the 'love hormone' clichés to explore the complex neuroendocrinology and chemosignaling that drive human pair-bonding and mate selection.
- 1
The Social Salience Hypothesis
- Beyond the 'Cuddle Hormone' Myth
- MHC and Immunogenetic Compatibility
- 2
Neuroendocrine Circuitry
- The Oxytocin-Vasopressin Axis
- Dopaminergic Reinforcement Loops
- Steroid-Peptide Interactions
- 3
The Pheromone Controversy
- The Human Vomeronasal Organ Debate
- Axillary Compounds and Signaling
- 4
Developmental and Clinical Perspectives
- Epigenetics of the Attachment System
- The Allostatic Load of Heartbreak
- Pharmacological Manipulation of Love
4 sections · 10 units · 30 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
The Molecular Basis of Attraction is taught in the The Professor style: clear, structured, thorough. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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