- Bridesmaids
- The Muppets
What has become of me? It has something to do with having kids, I think. Some people say “I became a totally different person when my children are born” but for me it’s been almost the opposite. In this one way, though, I’ve changed. Before children I used to be impervious to sentimental scenes. Now I choke up because one puppet misses another. Mysterious.
I wonder if having children stimulates the production of oxytocin in males. Anyway, in my own case, I just seem to have gotten more empathetic and sentimental in regard to people and animals (domestic and wild) as I’ve gotten older.
Me too. I’ve got a kid now, but I still can’t understand why The Hunger Games makes me tear up…
A study in PNAS found testosterone is lower in fathers than men without kids. The hormone levels were particularly low in fathers that spend more time with their kids, so the tearing-up might not last as kids grow older and become more autonomous.
10.1073/pnas.1105403108
These authors also did experiments that involved play, and found individual context matters for hormone effects.
http://groups.anthropology.northwestern.edu/lhbr/kuzawa_web_files/pdfs/Gettler%20et%20al%20Horm%20Behavior%20in%20press.pdf
To answer Richard Seguin’s question, some research suggests that oxytocin rises in parents.
10.1016/j.biopsych.2010.02.005
10.1016/j.psyneuen.2010.01.013
Work on other mammalian species suggests that the effects of oxytocin are especially pronounced in mothers, and vasopressin is important for fathers. Extensive research on the impact on vasopressin on human fathers is presently lacking.
Sounds like you could be a sucker for parts of “Toy Story 3″ or Dickens now.
Scott McCloud might say that it’s easier (in some circumstances) to empathize with muppets than with real people because it is easier for us to project ourselves onto them (their lack of “reality” doesn’t get in the way). Having kids has tended to make me feel much more protective of children (other people’s as well as my own), especially those close to the ages of my own children. Maybe “muppet” sets off a similar trigger?