I bet you could also reduce appetite just by hitting someone with pepper spray right before breakfast.
I don’t know about you, but I believe pepper spray directed at breakfast is a condiment.
So, in theory, you could get measurable similar results by giving them a hug before they eat?
I hope this isn’t considered progress.
Hugs make me hungers.
I’d say every toxin can make men eat less if you give them a high enough dose.
Appetite suppression is mentioned in the Wikipedia article (cited 2002) on Oxycontin.
I’m envisioning a future where wives carry Oxytocin mace and give their husbands a blunt spray to the face every time they look at pizza/other women, like how some people use spray bottles of water to punish their pets. BAD Andrew!
I already put Blaire’s Ultra Death Sauce on my eggs in the morning, so this seems like a logical next step for me.
“Mmmmm, incapacitating…”
-Homer Simpson
So what evolutionary psych would say about this? I imagine it might be something like:
Oxytocin is associated with long term pair bonding.
The better your diet, the better your health & therefore the more likely you are to mate with your partner on a regular basis. Also you are more likely to be alive to protect and enrich your offspring’s wellbeing.
This improves your genetic fitness, therefore this trait has become prevalent.
QED
But I’m not a psychologist or biologist, so what do I know.
What, pray tell, is a “man-sized serving of breakfast”? Are there breakfast serving sizes that make you look feminine?
[quote=“sir_sitruss, post:9, topic:53136”]I’m envisioning a future where wives carry Oxytocin mace and give their husbands a blunt spray to the face every time they look at pizza/other women[/quote]Or when they complain that their breakfast is not a man-sized serving. (?!)
The Hungry Man Dinner Company is deploying a task force to nip this one in the bud.
Since it’s showing good results in studies at reducing addictions of all kinds, I’d say it’s more about reducing the desire to engage in addictive behavior, including overeating.
While one explanation could be an increase in willpower, I would bet that a better explanation is a general sense of happiness and well-being, reducing the need for negative coping mechanisms.
There was a really excellent article in the New Yorker a month ago about the resurgence of studies using psilocybin (magic mushrooms) to treat a variety of issues, including – very promisingly – addictions. A single psilocybin session (combined with counseling by a psychiatrist) reframed participants lives in such powerful ways, and led them to such greater sense of well-being, that many more stopped addictive behaviors than any other treatments known. (Paging @frauenfelder – BB should write a post on this article.)
Let’s try this, which of these breakfasts seems more feminine, and which seems more masculine?
(Key word being: seems. Gendered stereotypes are involved in many people’s perceptions. I am not saying breakfast is inherently gendered.)
Ocycontin was Rush Limbaugh’s secret for making himself thin (and deaf).
Must be a trick question, the second one seems more like lunch.
…aaand now I’m hungry.
Oh great, aerosolize a highly addictive drug and promote it as a diet treatment. What could possibly go wrong
Whups. my bad, I got the stuff wrong. Thanks @caryroys