Glen, inter alios, 

 

I think of trolling as attempting to destroy an internet conversation by ad 
hominems or other forms of harsh dismissive argument. 

 

But when I think of trolling as a metaphor developed on the child's story of 
the Three Billy Goat's 
<https://americanliterature.com/childrens-stories/the-three-billy-goats-gruff>  
gruff, then perhaps lurking under interesting arguments in order to provoke 
arguments only of interest to the troll fits the bill. 

 

The one is a kind of cruelty; the other is a form of cluelessness.  

 

Nick  

 

 

 

 

 

Nicholas Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology

Clark University

[email protected]

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Friam <[email protected]> On Behalf Of u?l? ?
Sent: Wednesday, March 4, 2020 8:28 AM
To: FriAM <[email protected]>
Subject: [FRIAM] oxytocin, again

 

 

Once again the ingroup hormone is in the news:

 

1) A neurobiological association of revenge propensity during intergroup 
conflict < <https://elifesciences.org/articles/52014> 
https://elifesciences.org/articles/52014>

 

The link for the paper is the download icon in the upper right.

 

But in skimming this paper, it seems to contradict what I inferred from this 
paper:

 

2) Oxytocin enhances pupil dilation and sensitivity to ‘hidden’ emotional 
expressions < <https://academic.oup.com/scan/article/8/7/741/1653225> 
https://academic.oup.com/scan/article/8/7/741/1653225>

 

Granted, I expect to infer things not implied because I really have no idea 
what I'm reading. Whatever, I'm inspired by the other thread on acid 
epistemology to talk about things that cannot be talked about and run with the 
apparent contradiction. 8^)

 

(2) seemed to say that oxytocin is a marker for being "on the look out", 
whereas (1) seems to imply it's a marker for being "in a state of 
trust/comfort/empathy/whatever". Endocrine signaling seems (in my ignorance) to 
be coarse and ambiguous. Since the body is made up of many quasi-autonomous 
components, an ebb or flow of a signal might take on different "meaning" 
depending on the *rest* of the conditions experienced by any given component. 
E.g. pupil dilation might occur in either context, where one's comfortable 
enough to be free of "fight or flight", but "on the look out" for subtle 
expressions in their ingroup team *or* safe enough to be free of "fight or 
flight", but "on the look out" for subtle expressions of subterfuge or betrayal 
in business negotiations (or whatever).

 

I suppose a possible resolution of the contradiction might lie in the whole 
fast vs. slow thinking metaphor. If there are (at least) two conditions where 
one needs to be "on the look out", one fully engaged in fight or flight ... 
eyes darting around looking for the snake, pupils dilated ... or fully comfy on 
your couch listening to Enya ... pupils dilated hunting for the hidden 
emotional states of your dog.

 

--

☣ uǝlƃ

 

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