Back in November 2007 we ran a post titled, Snorting Oxytocin, with this lead …

“Attention major gift fundraisers!!

Next time you’re about to pop the question to a prospect (the fundraising ask, that is), squirt a dose of oxytocin up their nose. You might get two-and-a half times the gift amount that you otherwise would have!”

At the time, researchers were beginning to report that higher levels of oxytocin in one’s system correlated with feelings of generosity, trust, empathy and other “feel good” vibes. Hence our tongue-in-cheek advice to major gift fundraisers.

Now, along comes Dr. Love, as written up in this recent Fast Company article. The oxytocin research has moved ahead full bore, with “neuroeconomist” Dr. Paul Zak (aka Dr. Love) being one of the pioneers.

This fascinating article offers a bit of evidence on two points of special interest …

1. People avidly using social nets like Facebook and Twitter to “relate” away show higher levels of oxytocin … in other words, tweeting is good for your health! [Personally, I’m resisting this one.]

2. Higher levels of oxytocin produces more generosity toward charities and causes, not just toward individuals. Here’s how the writer describes the experiment in which he snorted a dose of oxytocin, while others were administered placebos:

“We then view a series of public-service announcements. The videos, which are real PSAs that ran in the United States and Europe, dramatize such things as the dangers of taking drugs and drunk driving, and the devastation of global warming. Some are gory; others are scary. I watch almost a dozen, and after each one am asked a question that tests whether I paid attention. If I answer correctly, I get paid. As a follow-up, I’m asked if I’d like to donate a portion of the proceeds to the organization that sponsored the ad.

The experiment is ongoing, and the data are far from complete. I donated 33% more money to the PSA charities than the placebo group. (“Congratulations,” wrote Zak, when he sent me the result. “You have a heart!”) Zak’s initial findings indicate that folks infused with oxytocin donated an average of 48% more to charity than those administered the placebo. This will be the first study showing that oxytocin increases generosity to charitable organizations, and not simply to a particular individual.”

Fascinating stuff to read about. Unfortunately, the operational challenge remains …

How do you get the damn stuff in your donor’s nose at the moment they’re reading or listening to your appeal?! Perhaps that, not donor modeling and screening, is the supreme challenge facing fundraisers in the 21st Century.

I wonder if it would work in the form of a scented letter? Could be the Second Coming of direct mail!

Tom

P.S. Steven Reed, looks like there are at least two of us reading this stuff!