This article by the Times’ Nicholas Wade is a fascinating look at, perhaps, a biological alert system to alert us to untrustworthy people.

In the age of Bernard Madoff, this is worth reading.

The New York Times

“The glue that binds a human society together is trust. But people who trust others too much are likely to get taken for a ride. Both trust and distrust, it now seems, are influenced by hormones that can induce people to ratchet their feeling of trust up or down.”

…”It may seem strange that there is a hormonal influence in such a delicate calculation as to whether or not to trust someone. But perhaps trust is so important to a society’s survival that natural selection has generated a hormonal basis for it.” (Emphasis added)

Source: New York Times, June 7, 2010