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Testosterone and Chess Competition
Abstract
The hormone testosterone (T) has a central role in recent theories about allocation of status ranks during face-to-face competition. It has been methodologically convenient to test the hypothesized T mechanism in physically taxing athletic contests, where results have been supportive, although their generalizability to normal social competition is questionable. Competition among chess players is a step closer to normal social competition because it does not require physical struggle, and it is the arena for tests of the T mechanism which are reported here. We find that winners of chess tournaments show higher T levels than do losers. Also, in certain circumstances, competitors show rises in T before their games, as if in preparation for the contests. These results generally support recent theories about the role of T in the allocation of status ranks.
... Since competition presents the opportunity for either a win or a loss, T levels have been shown to vary based on whether the individual wins or loses (Booth, Shelley, Mazur, Tharp, & Kittok, 1989;Mazur, Booth, & Dabbs, 1992). For example, one study found that successful chess players had higher levels of T than losing players (Mazur et al., 1992). ...
... Since competition presents the opportunity for either a win or a loss, T levels have been shown to vary based on whether the individual wins or loses (Booth, Shelley, Mazur, Tharp, & Kittok, 1989;Mazur, Booth, & Dabbs, 1992). For example, one study found that successful chess players had higher levels of T than losing players (Mazur et al., 1992). It appears that losing a competition leads to a decrease in T, and winning a competition causes T levels to continue to increase (Mazur & Lamb, 1980). ...
... On the other hand, when one's partner engages in extradyadic kissing, the individual is likely to believe that the rival whom their partner is kissing has done more than threaten the relationship-the rival has already won. In such a case, the individual may respond as though they have lost a competition, with a decrease or lack of an increase in T (Mazur et al., 1992;Mazur & Lamb, 1980). Our results support this idea, as T did not increase in women in the kissing condition as it did in the flirting condition. ...
http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/91861/1/lritchie.pdf
... Analogously to animal studies, links between hormone levels, aggression and competition outcome have also been investigated in humans. The results of some studies seem to support the challenge hypothesis and show T increase and C decrease in winners and the opposite pattern in losers [58][59][60][61]. On the whole, however, the results are mixed [62][63][64][65]. ...
... We also obtained data regarding fighters' hormone levels (T and C) and affective states (for a review, see [70,71]), because it had been shown that they are associated with both body odour quality and with the competition outcome (e.g. [60,62,72]). We assumed that both victory and defeat in a match will change the quality of axillary secretion. ...
... This effect has been repeatedly shown in previous studies (e.g. [60,62]). T stimulates the proliferation of sebocytes and affects the function of apocrine sweat glands [92]. ...
Dominance hierarchy is often established via repeated agonistic encounters where consistent winners are considered dominant. Human body odour contains cues to psychological dominance and competition, but it is not known whether competition outcome (a marker of a change in dominance hierarchy) affects the hedonic quality of human axillary odour. Therefore, we investigated the effect of winning and losing on odour quality. We collected odour samples from Mixed Martial Arts fighters approximately 1 h before and immediately after a match. Raters then assessed samples for pleasantness, attractiveness, masculinity and intensity. We also obtained data on donors' affective state and cortisol and testosterone levels, since these are known to be associated with competition and body odour quality. Perceived body odour pleasantness, attractiveness and intensity significantly decreased while masculinity increased after a match irrespective of the outcome. Nonetheless, losing a match affected the pleasantness of body odour more profoundly, though bordering formal level of significance. Moreover, a path analysis revealed that match loss led to a decrease in odour attractiveness, which was mediated by participants’ negative affective states. Our study suggests that physical competition and to some extent also its outcome affect the perceived quality of human body odour in specific real-life settings, thus providing cues to dominance-related characteristics.
This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue ‘Olfactory communication in humans’.
... Field resulted in stronger effects than laboratory studies. As such, real-life tournaments such as field hockey, tennis, chess, and basketball [1,9,32,44], have revealed some of the largest effect sizes. In contrast, laboratory settings involving, for instance, playing video games, have repeatedly failed to confirm a winner/loser effect [46][47][48]67]. ...
... A closer look at, for instance, four studies commonly cited as proof of the winner/loser effect, raises doubts that the T responses reported by them follow a single common mechanism because they occur at very different moments. Winner's maximum T elevations have been detected immediately after the end of a 15-min contest [15], ten minutes after the end of a wrestling fight [25], two hours after completion of a tennis match [45], or as late as the next day's morning after a chess tournament [44]. Consequently, elevated T levels may be triggered by very different stimuli relating to the event. ...
... The timing of saliva sample collections varies considerably between studies. With reference to the postoutcome sampling interval, some studies have revealed elevated T levels 30 to 45 min after the end of a competition (e.g., [1,35,52]), or even later (e.g., [44,45]). Others, however, recorded strongest responses ten minutes or even less after the end of a competition, followed by a rapid return to baseline levels (e.g., [15,25,47]). ...
Two main hypotheses have been formulated to explain short-term testosterone responses to competitions. The challenge hypothesis and the biosocial model of status make different predictions concerning the point of time, direction, and meaning of hormonal changes. This field study investigated whether testosterone reacts to experiences of challenge during the early stages of a competition or to experiences of status change as a consequence of the competition's outcome. Over a period of 28 days, approximately 2000 salivary testosterone samples were collected from 82 football fans (53% men), while they were watching the matches of their favorite national team during the 2014 World Cup. Conducting repeated measurements across seven competitive events (i.e., matches) and over the course of each match allowed us to split vicarious experiences during each competition into phases of challenge and phases of status change. For both sexes, the results revealed discriminable testosterone trajectories depending on whether the fans experienced highly competitive matches or quick victories. By use of a discontinuous change model, maximal testosterone increases were detected during experiences of challenge. In contrast, a return to pre-contest baseline testosterone levels was initiated as soon as a status gain became certain. Testosterone responsiveness was partly moderated by the subjective importance of the competitive event. Thus, this study provides evidence in favor of the challenge hypothesis and emphasizes the value of conducting high-resolution within-subject designs to further explain the adaptive meaning of androgen responses.
... Given the ubiquity of sporting contests across cultures and the role endocrine responses, handedness and other biologically relevant factors play in determining outcomes, recent evolutionary approaches have increased our understanding of human sporting competitions (reviewed by Widermann et al., 2011). Winner and loser effects have been observed both in the context of contemporary sports such as tennis (Booth et al. 1989), soccer ), and crew (Kivlighan et al. 2004), as well as non-physical mental competitions such as chess matches (Mazur et al. 1992) and number tracking tasks (Mehta and Josephs 2006). Witnessing the outcome of contests can even produce physiological effects in the spectators, as measurable changes in testosterone have even been observed in the fans of winning and losing teams at sporting events (Bernhardt et al. 1998). ...
... One such candidate comparison is the win-loss outcome of Major League Baseball (MLB) double-headers, whereby two consecutive 9inning baseball games are played with only a brief intermission (typically 3 hours). Although in many studies on humans, winner and loser effects are assessed through saliva assays 15-30 minutes following the conclusion of the competition (e.g., Mazur et al., 1992;), testosterone differences have been observed to last into the day following competition (Booth et al. 1989). Furthermore, while peak testosterone is observed at 45min following contests in California mice (Peromyscus californicus, Oyegbile and Marler 2005), differences in aggression attributed to winning a contest have been observed long after hormone levels return to baseline (Trainor et al. 2004). ...
... Contrary to some novel predictions, however, the average margin of victory for double header games was similar between sweeps and splits and did not depend upon home field. Our general findings from MLB double header outcomes are consistent with winner and loser effects documented in cases ranging from intrasexual competition in spiders (Whitehouse 1997) to chess matches in humans (Mazur et al., 1992). We speculate that, consistent with previous research on team sporting events (e.g., ), corresponding changes in testosterone levels of the players following wins and losses influence these nonrandom patterns of victory in MLB double headers. ...
Past experiences have a considerable impact on the success of future interactions across the animal kingdom. Known as winner and loser effects, victors of prior contests tend to have an increased chance of future success while losers are likely to experience additional failure. These effects are in part due to differential endocrine responses among competitors following initial bouts, with winners benefiting from subsequent increases in testosterone (T) and losers being disadvantaged by reductions in T and heightened stress hormones. Now well documented across a range of human competitions, sporting events provide an ideal setting to explore this biological phenomenon. This study uses the perspective of winner and loser effects to study the pattern of outcomes observed in consecutive baseball and softball games played in the same day (i.e., doubleheaders) at the collegiate level. Using archival data from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), we show that the distribution of winning and losing within these contests is not random. Consistent with a previous report on Major League Baseball (MLB), collegiate baseball and softball doubleheaders are more likely to be swept (i.e., one team winning both games) than split (i.e., each team winning and losing once), and the margin of victory in the first game was positive predictor of this outcome. While there were no differences between the strength of these effects between baseball and softball, both collegiate sports resulted in greater proportion of sweeps than in MLB. A residency effect was also observed, whereby victors of sweeps were more often the home team. This home field advantage was stronger for collegiate baseball compared to softball and the MLB. This report adds to a large comparative literature on winner and loser effects, and provides insight into the dynamics that modulate human performance in high-level athletic competition.
... This hypothesis is supported by two lines of research, one which suggests that winners are akin to high-status group members, and another that has linked high status to reduced prosocial behavior. The first line of research refers to winning or losing a contest as a respective upward or downward shift in status (e.g., [23,28]), and therefore suggests that winning a contest may serve as a high-status marker [29]. The second line of research demonstrates that high-status individuals are less tolerant of resource distribution in which their portion is significantly smaller than the other party's [30,31]. ...
... Specifically, we showed that the effect of contest outcome on prosociality depended on the perceived role of the decision maker-as a potential giver vs. divider. More broadly, and based on the literature that linked contest outcomes to perceived status (e.g., [23,28,29]), this finding hints that the effect of social status on prosocial behavior may depend on the way the decision makers' perceive their role. Finding that the negative effect on prosociality holds only in a giving framing and not in a dividing framing is important not only from a theoretical perspective, but also because it may help enhance desirable behavior and inhibit undesirable behavior. ...
Following previous research on various aspects of contests, we aim to explore how taking part in a contest affects subsequent behavior. We focus on whether the experience of having just competed in a contest, beyond its outcome, would have an impact on other-regarding decisions towards an individual who was not part of the preliminary contest. In addition, in light of inconclusive results in the existing literature regarding the effect of contest outcome on subsequent prosociality, we reexamine this effect. In line with our hypothesis, participation in a contest was found to reduce prosociality. Additionally, we found that winning a contest reduced prosociality only when decisions were framed as "giving" decisions and not as "dividing" decisions. This finding suggests that the effect of contest outcome may depend on specific elements of the presented situations.
... In their now classic tennis study, Booth, Shelley, Mazur, Tharp, and Kittok (1989) found that players displayed an anticipatory rise of T, as evidenced in their higher salivary T measured 15 minutes before the match compared to a baseline T assessed the day prior. Similar patterns of T rise before the competitive encounter have been observed in judo, wrestling, hockey, chess, and video-game tournaments (Booth, Mazur, & Dabbs, 1993;Mazur, Booth, & Dabbs Jr., 1992;Mazur, Susman, & Edelbrock, 1997;A. Salvador, Suay, González-Bono, & Serrano, 2003;Alicia Salvador, Suay, Martinez-Sanchis, Simon, & Brain, 1999), though note that the use of small samples remains a key limitation of many of these studies. ...
... Evidence indicates that a wide range of social mammals calibrate their T levels to wins and losses (Mazur & Booth, 1998). Winners of status contests generally show a rapid increase in circulating T relative to pre-competition or losers in physically demanding competitions, such as wrestling, rowing, and tennis (Booth et al., 1989;Elias, 1981;Longman et al., 2018;Mazur & Lamb, 1980), as well as non-physical competitions with sanctioned competitors, such as chess, domino, and video-game matches (Flinn et al., 2012;Mazur et al., 1992;Zilioli & Watson, 2012). This victory-induced T effect is particularly pronounced when the stakes of competition (and thus competitive motivation) are especially high, such as when status concerns are hypersalient and the domain of competition has high self-importance (Edwards, Wetzel, & Wyner, 2006;Schultheiss et al., 2005;Vongas & Al Hajj, 2017), the competition venue is in own territory rather than away (i.e., 'home advantage'; Carré, 2009;Fuxjager, Mast, Becker, & Marler, 2009;Neave & Wolfson, 2003), or the defeated rival is from an antagonistic out-group rather than in-group (Flinn et al., 2012;Oxford, Ponzi, & Geary, 2010). ...
The brain, behavior, and neuroendocrine system have coevolved to support human group living. Recent developments in behavioral endocrinology over last several decades increasingly point to the powerful role of social experiences in influencing and being influenced by hormones. Here, we review the accumulated empirical developments that link two hormones—testosterone and cortisol—to social competition and affiliation. We suggest that testosterone and cortisol both influence and reflect the dynamics of human social behavior in domains of competition and affiliation, albeit in very different ways. The evidence supports the notion that testosterone may function as a competition hormone that calibrates psychological systems to current social standing and adaptively guide status-seeking efforts. As for cortisol, much evidence reveals that cortisol modulates affiliative behaviors in ways that appear to be adaptive; cortisol is elevated during times of social threat, social isolation, and loneliness, possibly to mobilize responses geared toward seeking coping and support, but is dampened when individuals gain social control and affiliative support. Still, more work is needed to unpack the complex interplay between neurobiology and human sociality. We end with a number of methodological recommendations on how using salivary bioscience methods may ultimately lead to a richer understanding of the complex reciprocal ties between biology and human social behavior.
... Studies examining only women found higher T levels in winners (Costa and Salvador 2012), a positive change in T levels in winners (Oliveira et al. 2009), increased T levels irrespective of the outcome (Bateup et al. 2002), decreased T levels in winners (Zilioli and Watson 2014), or found that T levels were completely unrelated to the outcome (Casto and Edwards 2016a). Notably, the majority of these studies focused on trained subjects in physically demanding settings, such as soccer games (Casto and Edwards 2016a;Edwards et al. 2006;Oliveira et al. 2009), rowing (Kivlighan et al. 2005) or badminton games (Jiménez et al. 2012), while the few studies that applied cognitive tasks did not include men and women simultaneously (Costa and Salvador 2012;Gladue et al. 1989;Hasegawa et al. 2008;Mazur et al. 1992;McCaul et al. 1992;Stanton and Schultheiss 2007;van der Meij et al. 2010). ...
... To account for sex-specific differences in endocrine baseline and reaction levels, we conducted the standardization and percent change calculations separately for men and women. Notably, another common procedure of normalization of T and C values, which includes a division of each subject's T or C value by his/her highest obtained T level (Bateup et al. 2002;Mazur et al. 1992Mazur et al. , 1997, revealed the same results. We chose to apply the former approach, as the latter normalization procedure still produced an overall sex effect at baseline, with males' scores lying above females' scores in all four conditions. ...
Objectives
This study employed an experimental design that induced social comparison in couples by systematically varying performance feedback in a manipulated pretend IQ test.
Methods
Sixty-two heterosexual couples were randomly assigned to four experimental groups, in which either the man (1) or the woman (2) was provided with superior feedback and compared to couples which received equal feedback (3) or no feedback (4). The biopsychological responses were assessed using repeated measures of mood, levels of the gonadal hormones testosterone (T) and estradiol (E2), and the stress hormone cortisol (C) in both partners.
Results
Compared to the men, the entire female sample responded to the test with a decrease in T. Women who received superior feedback showed a unique endocrine profile, characterized by an immediate increase in E2 and a delayed decrease in T. In contrast to men, women’s mood decreased in all conditions except for the superior feedback.
Conclusions
Our results indicate that women may be physiologically and subjectively more strongly affected by comparison processes with their partners in the dimension of skills and achievement. Moreover, our findings are the first to show that in romantic relationships, the endocrine correlates of social comparison may include an intriguing interplay between the steroid hormones T and E2, but not C.
... In many species, male status in a social hierarchy emerges through male-male competition. A considerable number of previous researchers have reported a link between competition outcome and androgenization in human males, with a victory typically causing an increase in testosterone relative to defeat (Archer 2006;Bernhardt and Dabbs 1997;Bernhardt et al. 1998;Booth et al. 1989;Elias 1981;Gladue et al. 1989;Mazur et al. 1992;Mazur and Lamb 1980). The findings of the present study are consistent with previous reports as perceived victory in the ergometer competition led to Model Summary: F 3,34 = 4.46, p = 0.01, R 2 = .28, ...
... Although this study has shown an endocrine response to a sporting contest, several studies have reported similar findings in non-athletic contests, such as chess (Mazur et al. 1992;Mazur and Lamb 1980), video-gaming (Zilioli and Watson 2012), and laboratory-based reaction-time contests (Gladue et al. 1989). Future research should perhaps aim to further investigate the physiological and psychological consequences of victory and defeat in non-athletic contests. ...
Male-male competition is involved in inter- and intrasexual selection, with both endocrine and psychological factors presumably contributing to reproductive success in human males. We examined relationships among men’s naturally occurring testosterone, their self-perceived mate value (SPMV), self-esteem, sociosexuality, and expected likelihood of approaching attractive women versus situations leading to child involvement. We then monitored changes in these measures in male rowers (N = 38) from Cambridge, UK, following a manipulated “win” or “loss” as a result of an indoor rowing contest. Baseline results revealed that men with heightened testosterone and SPMV values typically had greater inclinations toward engaging in casual sexual relationships and a higher likelihood of approaching attractive women in a hypothetical social situation. As anticipated, both testosterone and SPMV increased following a manipulated “victory” and were associated with heightened sociosexuality, and increased expectations toward approaching attractive women versus individuals who would involve them in interacting with children after the race. SPMV and self-esteem appeared to mediate some of the effects of testosterone on post-race values. These findings are considered in the broader context of individual trade-offs between mating and parental effort and a model of the concurrent and dynamic androgenic and psychological influences contributing to male reproductive effort and success.
Electronic supplementary material
The online version of this article (10.1007/s12110-018-9323-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
... In a meta-analysis, Geniole et al. (2017) showed that competition regularly induces acute changes in men's testosterone, and that relatively greater changes in winners than losers more often appear in non-lab settings. For example, winners of chess competitions had relatively higher testosterone changes than losers, with effects more pronounced in close rather than easy matches (Mazur, Booth, & Dabbs, 1992). Moreover, in lab-based poker play, testosterone levels in winners and losers alike rose approximately 10% in 25e30 min of competition (Steiner, Barchard, Meana, Hadi, & Gray, 2010). ...
... Several studies have investigated hormone responses to video gaming. Anticipatory changes in hormone levels before the start of a ping-pong video game match were observed (Mazur et al., 1992). Effects on testosterone and cortisol of playing a violent, multiplayer video game showed that individuals who made the most effort towards their team's victory had an immediate increase in testosterone after the match, whereas the losing team's most active team members faced a delay in testosterone increase, but only if this competition was played before the within-group tournament (Oxford, Ponzi, & Geary, 2010). ...
Esports, or competitive video gaming, has rapidly increased in online play and viewing. The popularity of esports such as League of Legends may derive in part because it features skills-based coalitional competition. Whereas a sizable literature focuses on adult human hormones and competition, little research has addressed the hormone responses of men playing video games. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the effects of playing a coalitionary-based esport on young U.S. men's steroid hormone levels in a naturalistic study. We tested salivary steroid changes in response to esports club members (n = 26) playing League of Legends against other people and the computer. We hypothesized that esports competition would increase testosterone, cortisol, DHEA and androstenedione levels, with more pronounced increases in winners than losers. Participants provided saliva samples before and after competitions lasting 15–27 min in duration. Salivary testosterone, cortisol, DHEA and androstenedione levels did not change overall or between play against people vs. the computer or with respect to winning or losing. However, play duration (range 16–27 min) was positively related to changes in DHEA, androstenedione and testosterone during play against people. Aldosterone levels decreased overall. We suggest that the informal and familiar environment as well as relatively short play duration help account for generally null findings. These findings help document physiological effects of esport play, in turn contributing to a richer understanding of why so many play and watch esports.
... Mazur (1985) proposed the Biosocial Model of Status, which associated changes in testosterone concentration with the outcome of the competition (for a detailed review of the social neuroendocrinology of testosterone see Carré and Olmstead, 2015). This model proposes victory increases testosterone levels in winners, which has already been observed after challenges with high (Jiménez et al., 2012;Carré et al., 2013) and low (Mazur et al., 1992) physical demand. However, it is worth noting this model was guided by observations in male rhesus monkeys (Rose et al., 1972(Rose et al., , 1975 and humans may display disparate patterns due to more complex societal structures. ...
The present study aimed to investigate (i) di erences in salivary testosterone and cortisol concentrations before, during, and after simulated beach volleyball match, depending on match outcome (winning vs. losing); (ii) the relationship between technical-tactical performance indicators in beach volleyball and salivary hormonal concentrations (i.e., testosterone, cortisol). We hypothesized (i) salivary testosterone concentrations would be greater in winners and salivary cortisol would be lower; (ii) testosterone would associate with positive technical-tactical performance and cortisol would associate with negative technical-tactical performance. Sixteen athletes participated in the study and were grouped according to the result of a simulated game (winners: n = ; losers: n =). Salivary hormone concentration of testosterone and cortisol were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (pre-match, post first set, and post-match), and the coe cient of performance and e ciency were used as technical-tactical performance indicators. Regarding testosterone, there was a large e ect size for match outcome after the first set (i.e., Winner vs. Losers) and a moderate e ect size for the time in winners (pre-match vs. post-match). Regarding cortisol, there was a moderate e ect size of time in losers only (pre-match vs. post-match). Moreover, cortisol pre-match was negatively correlated with the o ensive performance (attack performance coe cient: r = −. ; p =. ; attack e ciency: r = −. ; p = .). In conclusion, the e ect of match outcome on testosterone and cortisol levels was moderate in winners and losers, respectively. Moreover, resting cortisol concentration appears to be related to a diminished attack technical-tactical performance. However, larger confirmatory studies are required to confirm these data to corroborate winning increases testosterone levels and/or reduces cortisol in a sporting setting.
... Talking is, then, a central mechanism for negotiating the satisfaction of socially- Stevenson's essay. In fact, it is evident that successful chess-players are strongly motivated, and that this can be monitored in terms of the elevated levels of circulating testosterone (a gonadal sex hormone related to aggression or dominance-seeking behaviours) in winners as oposed to losers in club chess tournaments (using a male sample, since males produce more testosterone, and are therefore easier to monitor using saliva sampling) (Mazur et al. 1992). Mazur (1985) has proposed that conversational language use should be seen as another, very subtle form of status-competition or coalition-building behaviour, analogous to other more visibly competitive interactions such as sporting contests. ...
p>The work undertaken for this thesis addressed the issue of the relevance of study of living primates for inference concerning the evolution of social behaviour in extinct hominids. A series of studies are reported in which hypotheses concerning the evolution of human behavioural traits are evaluated using data and theory derived from primate studies.
These studies were as follows:
1) a re-evaluation of Deacon's (1988s,b) model of human brain evolution and specification of a test of the model using archaeological data from the Lower Palaeolithic;
2) a re-analysis of Dunbar's (1992) study of primate brain-social system relationships, using new data compilations and alternative multivariate statistical methodology;
3) an experiment in simulation modelling of regional patterns of information exchange using primate dispersal patterns as a guide, and application of the model to interpretation of Acheulian biface morphology;
4) specification of a new primate model of the origins and function of human language, and analysis of socioecological correlates of analogous behaviours in other living primates;
5) pilot experimentation using a new method of evaluating claims for inbuilt human reasoning biases in the Wason selection task (Cosmides 1989), and using a personality test which differentiates individual subjects by their `Machiavellianism' (following work in primate studies on the `Machiavellian' hypothesis of primate brain evolution [Byrne and Whiten 1988]).
The introduction and the concluding discussion describe the relevance of these studies to the new paradigm of `evolutionary psychology'.</p
... Research on the winner effect in humans confirms its presence in competitive contexts ranging from sports to board games to randomly assigned computer game outcomes (Booth, Shelley, Mazur, Tharp, & Kittok, 1989;Carré, Campbell, Lozoya, Goetz, & Welker, 2013; DOMAINS OF FEMALE CHOICE 12 Gladue, Boechler, & McCaul, 1989;Mazur, Booth, & Dabbs Jr, 1992). Even vicarious competitive outcomes experienced by sports fans and voters in an election are associated with testosterone changes (Bernhardt, Dabbs, Fielden, & Lutter, 1998;Stanton, Beehner, Saini, Kuhn, & LaBar, 2009; though see Burk, Mayer, & Wiese, 2019, for evidence of outcome-neutral testosterone increases during vicarious competition). ...
The present article advances the view that women's mate preferences can be grouped into at least two overarching domains: competitiveness and fatherhood. Theoretical and empirical considerations suggest that female mate preferences evolve in contexts of male competitiveness and often amplify the effects of male-male competition. Evidence for the importance of male-male competition and female choice for competitiveness in humans is reviewed. Evidence is likewise offered for the importance of human fatherhood as an additional domain of female choice outside of male competitiveness. Implications of more inclusive mate preferences for the evolution of cognitive architecture are discussed.
... Hence, higher levels of extraversion and lower levels of neuroticism could contribute to a greater concentration ability and resistance to fatigue and stress during chess playing. On the other hand, higher scores in psychoticism tend to associate with a higher level of aggressiveness, which may be also influential in a competitive and warlike game such as chess (Bilalic et al., 2007b;Mazur et al., 1992). ...
Chess is an appropriate model to study ability and non-ability traits as related with performance because it bears intellectual and emotional demanding requirements. With a group of amateur chess players (n = 100), the current study addressed two interrelated aims. First, we assessed whether the three broad PEN personality factors (psychoticism, extraversion, and neuroticism), and emotion regulation traits (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) differentiated chess players from the general population. Second, we compared the association of domain knowledge and personality/emotion traits with chess skill. The main findings indicated that chess players scored lower in neuroticism and higher in expressive suppression compared with the general population. Moreover, chess knowledge related in a greater extent with chess skill than personality/emotion regulation traits, even though extraversion explained additional variability in chess skill. Overall, the findings suggest that non-ability traits may be influential in the selection of the chess environment. Besides, the findings corroborate the stronger impact of cognitive ability than personality traits on intellectual performance found in other domains.
... After a precompetitive rise in both participants, testosterone levels remain higher in the individual who wins the interaction compared with the one who loses. This response is common in a number of contexts, including direct physical and nonphysical competition as well as in sports fans (Bernhardt et al. 1998;Booth et al. 1989;Geniole et al. 2017;Gladue, Boechler, and McCaul 1989;Mazur 1992;Trumble et al. 2012). This response is complex, but a salient explanation for this association is that testosterone facilitates the uptake of glucose and increases basal metabolism, especially in muscle tissue, most likely to prepare for a competitive interaction (Tsai and Sapolsky 1996). ...
... According to a meta-analytic study by Geniole et al. (2017), real-life sports tournaments more likely elicited clear T responses (e.g. Aguilar et al., 2013;Booth et al., 1989;Gonzalez-Bono et al., 1999;Mazur et al., 1992) compared with competitive games in laboratories. The lack of T responses in such laboratory settings might be explained by an insufficient degree of ego involvement on the part of the participants. ...
Providing negative feedback can be demanding, as it typically requires dealing with multiple negative emotions. The first aim of this study was to transfer this work-related task to a new laboratory protocol and to investigate short-term hormonal changes among feedback providers. The second aim was to test if such hormonal stress responses can be attenuated through a priori instructions on how to regulate emotions.
Each of 150 participants (51% women) provided eight saliva samples before, during, and after anticipating and conducting a negative feedback conversation with a professional actor who displayed negative emotional reactions. Participants were divided into four conditions regarding the way they were instructed to regulate their emotions: expressive suppression (keeping a neutral expression); cognitive reappraisal (staying task-oriented and emotionally distanced); affect utilization (moving towards and using emotions); or control condition.
By means of three-phase spline growth models, latent growth factors during baseline, stress response, and recovery were specified. Providing negative feedback was followed by significant temporary testosterone decreases as well as cortisol increases. Testosterone (but not cortisol) responses were attenuated when feedback providers had been instructed to either follow a cognitive reappraisal or affect utilization strategy.
This study provides evidence that a typical managerial task, that is, having to provide negative feedback, is a testosterone- and cortisol-relevant experience. Down-regulation of an individual's emotional involvement through reappraisal, as well as the newly introduced technique of moving towards and making use of the interaction partner's emotions (affect utilization), revealed consequences in terms of attenuating the testosterone response to stress.
... In addition to cyclic patterns, variation in reproductive hormone production is partly shaped by immediate environmental cues, including social experiences and ecological conditions. To take one example, evidence suggests that male testosterone levels spike prior to competitive events and remain elevated in winners (Booth, Shelley, Mazur, Tharp, & Kittok, 1989;Gladue, Boechler, & McCaul, 1989), both in physical (Elias, 1981) and nonphysical contests (Mazur, Booth, & Dabbs, 1992;Mazur, Susman, & Edelbrock, 1997). Interestingly, this effect is also evident among sports fans, such that testosterone levels increase among fans of a winning team and decreases among those of the losing team (Bernhardt, Dabbs, Fielden, & Lutter, 1998). ...
Energetic investment in human reproduction has long been recognized as costly, influencing developmental, physiological, and behavioral patterns in males and females. These effects are largely coordinated through the actions of reproductive hormones (eg, testosterone, estradiol, and progesterone). Here, the utility and limitations of minimally invasive sampling techniques are explored, providing a novel perspective on how reproductive hormone measurements can enhance reproductive endocrinology research. Salivary steroid measures are most commonly used, although several dried blood spot and urine assays are also available, and researchers continue to explore the efficacy of other sample types. These relatively simple measures have facilitated the collection of multiple samples from a single participant, allowing researchers to more accurately track the diurnal and cyclical variation exhibited by many reproductive hormones. Ultimately, the ability to collect fine‐grained participant data allows biological anthropologists to better test questions central to human reproductive ecology, life history theory, and public health. For example, fieldwork using these techniques suggests that testosterone profile variation across populations is influenced by energetic constraints and reproductive status. Moreover, hormone concentrations shape the development of sex characteristics, with implications for evolutionary questions related to sexual selection. Hormone levels also can be used to identify a range of medical concerns (eg, suppressed hormone production levels linked with psychosocial stress). These findings highlight how minimally invasive collection techniques can be applied to test diverse evolutionary hypotheses and identify important health concerns. Still, more work is needed to standardize collection and laboratory analysis procedures, thereby enabling more direct data comparisons between researchers.
... Further, the cost from competitiveness increases across attempts in an exponential manner; the higher the points one achieves, the more stiff the competition. Successive gameplay with initial increase in points likely results in increased levels of stress hormones (e.g., higher testosterone, adrenaline) which are typically associated with higher performance in status-based environments (Mazur et al., 1992) However, high levels of stress hormones, in this case induced by increasing competitiveness, may also impose costs and interfere with performance. For example, there is research to suggest that testosterone can encourage users to withdrawal or submit from a game when status is dropping (Inoue et al., 2017) and that increased adrenaline can inhibit cognitive performance (Henderson et al., 2012). ...
Rooted in theories of competitiveness and social comparison, we model the effects of users’ structural and trait competitiveness on their engagement and performance growth in an informal learning environment. We hypothesise that game elements of points and leaderboards stimulate users’ structural competitiveness, which affects users’ engagement and has an inverted-U effect on performance growth. We further hypothesise that these effects are stronger among individuals with higher trait competitiveness. We tested our hypotheses using data from a natural experiment conducted over 300 days on 88,310 unique users who made 215,920 game interactions within the Cyber Detectives exhibit at the Tech Interactive museum in California. Our results are based on two objective measures of trait-competitiveness as both behaviour and outcome (percentile ranking on total time spent and number of badges earned, respectively), multiple objective measures of user engagement (time spent per attempt, number of reattempts, and daily user attempts), and an objective measure of performance growth (points). Results provide overall support to our hypotheses. We contribute to the gamification literature by providing strong causal evidence of points and leaderboards triggering structural and trait competitiveness, which interact to affect both engagement and performance growth in informal learning contexts.
... Testosteron düzeyini, kazanmak ve kaybetmek (bir yarışı, dövüşü vb.) etkilemekte, kazandığınızda artmakta, kaybedince düşüş göstermektedir. Bu durum güreş ve tenis gibi sporlarda (Elias, 1981) ve hatta satrançta bile belirgin bir şekilde gözlenmektedir (Mazur, Booth ve Dabbs, 1992). Bu düzey, yarışmanın hemen öncesinde, adeta gelecek bir çatışmanın habercisi gibi artış göstermektedir (Björkvist, 2018). ...
... We propose that the key feature of settings where greater response speed has a negative effect on perceived competitive intensity is that the likelihood of an action or move resulting in the desired outcome increases as a function of the amount of deliberation that goes into it. This is the case in bargaining (Srivastava and Oza 2006), and it also applies to interactive games that require a significant amount of thought, such as chess (Mazur, Booth, and Dabbs 1992). By contrast, when a consumer is bidding in an ascending auction, taking more time to deliberate does not increase the likelihood of the desired outcome (i.e., winning the auction); indeed, it tends to reduce it. ...
This research examines how the intensity of the dynamic competitive interaction with other bidders in ascending auctions influences consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for auctioned products. It focuses on one important aspect of this interaction: the speed of competitor reaction. The key hypothesis is that having one's own bids reciprocated by competing bidders more quickly increases one's WTP in an auction. Evidence from five experiments demonstrates this effect and pinpoints the essential aspects of the psychological mechanism that underlies it. In particular, the effect of speed of competitor reaction on bidding behavior (1) is serially mediated by the perception that the auction is more intensely competitive and by a greater desire to win, (2) is distinct from the effects of time pressure and of the auction's duration or overall rate of progression, (3) is not driven by inferences about the auctioned prod-uct's market value, (4) is not qualified by the number of competing bidders nor due to any inferences about the latter, and (5) hinges on direct competitive interaction with other human bidders.
... Western societies, as well as in the vicarious experience of winning among sports fans (Apicella et al., 2008;Archer, 2006;Bernhardt & Dabbs, 1997;Bernhardt, Dabbs, Fielden, & Lutter, 1998;Booth, Shelley, Mazur, Tharp, & Kittik, 1989;Elias, 1981;Gladue, Boechler, & McCaul, 1989;Longman, Surbey, Stock, & Wells, 2018;Mazur, Booth, & Dabbs, 1992;Mazur & Lamb, 1980;McCaul, Gladue, & Joppa, 1992). This mirrors the increases in testosterone that have been observed in primates following a dominance interaction (Muller & Wrangham, 2001), and in pre-industrialized communities following hunting success (Trumble, Smith, Connor, Kaplan, & Gurven, 2013). ...
The use of sport as a conceptual framework offers unprecedented opportunities to improve our understanding of what the body does, shedding new light on our evolutionary trajectory, our capacity for adaptation, and the underlying biological mechanisms. This approach has gained traction over recent years. To date, sport has facilitated exploration not only of the evolutionary history of our species as a whole, but also of human variation and adaptation at the interindividual and intraindividual levels. At the species level, analysis of lower and upper limb biomechanics and energetics with respect to walking, running and throwing have led to significant advances in the understanding of human adaptations relative to other hominins. From an interindividual perspective, investigation of physical activity patterns and endurance running performance is affording greater understanding of evolved constraints of energy expenditure, thermoregulatory energetics, signaling theory, and morphological variation. Furthermore, ultra‐endurance challenges provoke functional trade‐offs, allowing new ground to be broken in the study of life history trade‐offs and human adaptability. Human athletic paleobiology—the recruitment of athletes as study participants and the use of contemporary sports as a model for studying evolutionary theory—has great potential. Here, we draw from examples in the literature to provide a review of how the use of athletes as a model system is enhancing understanding of human evolutionary adaptation.
... Testosterone is also known to be associated with competition, where individuals who win competitions exhibit higher testosterone levels than those who lose (Booth, Shelley, Mazur, Tharp, & Kittok, 1989). In some circumstances, rises in testosterone occur in anticipation of competition (Mazur, Booth, & Dabbs, 1992), although patterns appear to differ for males and females (Kivlighan, Granger, & Booth, 2005;Mazur, Susman, & Edelbrock, 1997;Taylor et al., 2000). If inter-student competition for grades or academic recognition is contributing to classroom stress, we would expect to see a signature in salivary testosterone profiles of students across contexts. ...
Small group learning activities have been shown to improve student academic performance and educational outcomes. Yet, we have an imperfect understanding of the mechanisms by which this occurs. Group learning may mediate student stress by placing learning in a context where students have both social support and greater control over their learning. We hypothesize that one of the methods by which small group activities improve learning is by mitigating student stress. To test this, we collected physiological measures of stress and self-reported perceived stress from 26 students in two undergraduate classes. Salivary cortisol and testosterone were measured within students across five contexts: a) pre-instructional baseline, b) following a traditional lecture, c) after participating in a structured small group learning activity, d) following completion of multiple choice, and e) essay sections of an exam. Results indicate students have lower salivary cortisol after small group learning activities, as compared to traditional lectures. Further, there is no evidence of a relationship between physiological measures of stress and self-reported perceived stress levels. We discuss how structured small group activities may be beneficial for reducing stress and improving student learning outcomes.
... Na een overwinning stijgt hij, na een nederlaag daalt hij. Dit is niet alleen gevonden na bokswedstrijden, maar ook na schaakwedstrijden (Bernhardt et al., 1998;Mazur et al., 1992). We verwachten dus bij patiënten een lager testosteron te vinden dan bij hun broers of bij gezonde proefpersonen. ...
... The Challenge Hypothesis posits that among males, testosterone concentrations reach their peak during intrasexual (i.e., male-to-male) competitive interactions, and that these changes facilitate territorial or aggressive behavior. In support of this, research in humans has found that testosterone fluctuates rapidly in response to competitive contexts, including both athletic (Cook and Crewther, 2012b;Gaviglio et al., 2015;Salvador et al., 2003) and non-athletic competitions (Carre et al., 2009;Casto and Edwards, 2016;Mazur et al., 1992). Further, research also indicates that transient changes in testosterone predict future behavior, consistent with the Challenge Hypothesis (Carre et al., 2009;Zilioli and Bird, 2017). ...
The Challenge Hypothesis (Wingfield et al., 1990) originally focused on adult male avian testosterone elevated in response to same-sex competition in reproductive contexts. The purpose of the present paper is to demonstrate how the Challenge Hypothesis has shaped ideas about human life histories. We conduct a citation analysis, drawing upon 400 Google Scholar citations in the human literature to identify patterns in this body of scholarship. We cover key factors, such as context and personality traits, that help explain variable testosterone responses such as winning/losing to adult competitive behavior. Findings from studies on courtship and sexual behavior indicate some variation in testosterone responses depending on factors such as motivation. A large body of research indicates that male testosterone levels are often lower in contexts of long-term committed partnerships and nurturant fathering and aligned with variation in male mating and parenting effort. As the Challenge Hypothesis is extended across the life course, DHEA and androstenedione (rather than testosterone) appear more responsive to juvenile male competitive behavior, and during reproductive senescence, baseline male testosterone levels decrease just as male life history allocations show decreased mating effort. We discuss how research on testosterone administration, particularly in older men, provides causal insight into effects of testosterone in humans, and how this "natural experiment" can be viewed in light of the Challenge Hypothesis. We synthesize central concepts and findings, such as an expanded array of costs of testosterone that inform life history tradeoffs between maintenance and reproductive effort, and we conclude with directions for future research.
Keywords: Testosterone; Life history; Competition; Pair bonds; Paternal behavior; Sexual behavior
... These findings agree with previous laboratory competition studies that found a T decrease, no significant change during the competition, or even no competition or outcome effect [13,22,42,43,46,48,59]. However, these results contrast with other studies that, consistent with the biosocial theory of status, found a relationship between T and winning in men and women [3,16,72]. Regarding C as well, we did not find differences related to condition or outcome in any of the samples. Both men and women showed a decreasing C level during the experiment, regardless of the condition (winners, losers, or CG), as described in other studies [42,44,46]. ...
The present study analyzes the testosterone (T), cortisol (C) and emotional response in competitive interactions between dyads, as well as the relationship between basal T and the emotional response. Seventy-two men and women (36 dyads) participated in same-sex dyads in a face-to-face laboratory competition, and thirty-two men and women (16 dyads) carried out the same task in a non-competitive condition. Salivary samples (5 ml of saliva, plastic vials) were provided at three time points (baseline, task, and post-task), and subsequently T (pg/ml) and C (nmol/L) concentrations were measured using ELISA method. Participants completed self-reported measures of emotional valence, emotional arousal and perceived dominance by means of the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM), at three time points (pre-task, task, and post-task). Two-level crossed Multilevel Models (MLM) showed a participants' stability in C (Mean ± SEM: baseline: 3.84 ± 0.28, task: 2.92 ± 0.28 and post-task: 2.62 ± 0.3), emotional valence (pre-task: 4 ± 0.06, task: 3.66 ± 0.1 and post-task: 3.84 ± 0.09), arousal (pre-task: 3.29 ± 0.09, task: 3.83 ± 0.09 and post-task: 3.38 ± 0.1) and dominance (pre-task: 3.28 ± 0.08, task: 3.4 ± 0.1 and post-task: 3.44 ± 0.09) values, which in the case of emotional valence and dominance was modulated by time-point, outcome and sex. Furthermore, analyses revealed that opponents' C, arousal and dominance values at one time-point influenced participants' values at the following time-point modulated by outcome, sex and time-point. Moreover, MLM indicated that in loser men, individuals higher in basal T (126.31 ± 6.4) displayed higher negative emotional valence after the defeat (post-task: 3.6 ± 0.21), while in women basal T (99.78 ± 12.6) was not significantly related to post competition emotional valence. These findings reinforce the importance of studying the relationship between hormonal and psychological changes in dyadic competition, and confirm that men and women differ in their psychophysiological responses to competition.
... Our data demonstrated that cortisol was a more accurate marker for competition stress than testosterone and differences between men and children are related with immature status of the adrenal/testis in boys at 12-14 years old. Moreover, testosterone increasing was associated with enhancement of the anticipative response (Booth, Shelley, Mazur, Tharp, and Kittok, 1989;Mazur, Booth, & Dabbs, 1992); under these circumstances man and boys with high development status compared with their individuals should be more efficient than other competitors, based on the favorable balance of cortisol and testosterone concentration. ...
Performance skiing is associated with competition stress and many neuropsychological coping mechanisms. 60 performance skiers, adult males, and young boys, within alpine skiing competition with two descending states were engaged for saliva sampling in order to assess the testosterone and cortisol concentrations. Three sampling moments were used for the identification of the key moment when the competition stress was enhanced: before competition, (T1), after the first descending (T2) and after posting the results of all skiers (T3). Cortisol was the central stress regulation hormone in adults and children whereas testosterone played a complementary function only in adult males at(T2). The crucial moment of the competition stress was between first and second descending, in (T2), which became the central moment when the trainer had to implement his/her psychological methods of stress management.
... Further, the cost from competitiveness increases across attempts in an exponential manner; the higher the points one achieves, the more stiff the competition. Successive gameplay with initial increase in points likely results in increased levels of stress hormones (e.g., higher testosterone, adrenaline) which are typically associated with higher performance in status-based environments (Mazur et al., 1992) However, high levels of stress hormones, in this case induced by increasing competitiveness, may also impose costs and interfere with performance. For example, there is research to suggest that testosterone can encourage users to withdrawal or submit from a game when status is dropping (Inoue et al., 2017) and that increased adrenaline can inhibit cognitive performance (Henderson et al., 2012). ...
Contribution: Intervention effectiveness is shown to vary in its influence on teenagers' outcomes with cybersecurity problem-solving and engagement. In-depth, high-intensity types of intervention may be more effective for female students. Background: Instructional interventions are being developed to address both the critical shortage in cybersecurity talent and gender gaps in the cyber workforce. These interventions need rigorous evaluation. Specific types of instructional strategies are particularly effective for STEM learning. Also, gender differences are found in the benefit students derive from certain instructional methods. An important question is whether certain instructional methods are particularly effective for cybersecurity learning, and consistent in both male and female students. Research Questions: Do cybersecurity interventions affect problem-solving, cybersecurity engagement, and/or cybersecurity self-efficacy? Are there gender differences in terms of intervention effectiveness? Methodology: Study 1 (n = 79) included a 60-min workshop model where participants, assigned to treatment and control groups, completed surveys pre- and post-intervention. The treatment group experienced a workshop on computer networking, without any technology. The control group did not receive the workshop. Study 2 (n = 34) was a week-long intervention whose participants had formal lessons, built websites, and defended themselves from an ongoing simulated cyberattack. Participants completed a survey on cybersecurity learning and engagement three times during the intervention. Findings: Study 1 showed no main treatment effect, but females experienced greater gains in problem-solving than males. In Study 2, there was positive growth over time and females experienced greater growth in cybersecurity self-efficacy relative to males.
... The ability to seek and attain social status is another key element that affects a person's chances of survival because attaining a higher social status compared to other conspecifics generally offers greater access to resources (Mazur et al., 1992;Salvador and Costa, 2009). However, little is known about the relationship between attachment style and seeking social status. ...
A person’s ability to form relationships and seek and attain social status affects their chances of survival. We study how anxious and avoidant-attachment styles and subsequent winning or losing affects the testosterone (T) levels of team members playing two status contests. The first is a management game played by teams striving to earn the most profits. Winners and losers emerge due to the cognitive endeavor of the players, which provokes intense status dynamics. Avoidant-attached winners do not show higher T levels whereas anxious-attached winners do. The second is an economic game which is rigged and favors some teams to become richer than others; teams have the option though to trade with each other and reduce the self-perpetuating rich-poor dynamics embedded in the game. Besides attachment styles, we here also explore how authentic pride as a self-conscious emotion affects team members’ T levels as players trade with others to create more fairness. As in the first status contest, players’ T levels are not significantly affected by their avoidant attachment style, neither as a main effect nor in interaction with winning or losing the game. However, similar to the first game, players’ anxious attachment style affects their T levels: anxious-attached players generate significantly higher T levels when winning the game, but only when experiencing high authentic pride during the game. In short, the moderating effects of attachment style on winners’ T levels are partly replicated in both status games which allows us to better understand the functioning of working models of attachment styles during and after status contests and gives us a better understanding of working models of attachment styles in general.
... Further, the cost from competitiveness increases across attempts in an exponential manner; the higher the points one achieves, the more stiff the competition. Successive gameplay with initial increase in points likely results in increased levels of stress hormones (e.g., higher testosterone, adrenaline) which are typically associated with higher performance in status-based environments (Mazur et al., 1992) However, high levels of stress hormones, in this case induced by increasing competitiveness, may also impose costs and interfere with performance. For example, there is research to suggest that testosterone can encourage users to withdrawal or submit from a game when status is dropping (Inoue et al., 2017) and that increased adrenaline can inhibit cognitive performance (Henderson et al., 2012). ...
Gamification is the process of adding games or game-like elements to a non-game task in order to encourage participation and engagement [8]. Gamification, as a means of engaging consumers [6, 10, 16], has become more and more popular and implemented in a range of user-oriented applications. However studies have shown that it may not always have the type of impact as initially projected [12, 13]. Gamification yields different, sometimes contradictory, results with regard to the engagement outcomes. Researchers have argued that gamification is not always properly implemented and may not have consistent positive effects [14], as the reward mechanisms and intensified competition could create a controlling gaming environment that could dampen the intrinsic motivation of the participants [13]. Therefore, it is important for businesses and organizations to be able to gauge the impact of gamified interventions and evaluate return on investment.
... According to the model, testosterone levels rise after a successful dominance confrontation as a signal to continue maintaining or enhancing status. Indeed, after a contest such as chess or tennis, testosterone levels are higher in winners than they are in the losers (e.g., Booth et al., 1989;Mazur et al., 1992;Mazur & Lamb, 1980). Additionally, both testosterone and mood increased from pregame baseline after a win among female soccer players, while the reverse was true among those on the losing team (Oliveira et al., 2009). ...
... This body of work reveals that a wide range of social mammals calibrate their T levels to previous history of wins and losses in rank contests (Mazur & Booth, 1998). Winners of status contests generally show a rapid increase in circulating T relative to precompetition or losers in physically demanding competitions, such as wrestling and tennis (Booth, Shelley, Mazur, Tharp, & Kittok, 1989;Elias, 1981;Mazur & Lamb, 1980), as well as nonphysical competitions with sanctioned competitors, such as chess matches (Mazur, Booth, & Dabbs, 1992). Of note, these victory-dependent transient changes in T suggest that in humans-a group-living species who possess membership in (and frequently move freely between) numerous social groups (from small pair-bonded relations to large aggregations), each with their own within-group asymmetries-circulating T levels are likely constantly in flux to mirror our current rank in the most salient social context. ...
In many social species, organisms adaptively fine-tune their competitive behavior in response to previous experiences of social status: Individuals who have prevailed in the past preferentially compete in the future, whereas those who have suffered defeat tend to defer and submit. A growing body of evidence suggests that testosterone functions as a “competition hormone” that coordinates this behavioral plasticity through its characteristic rise and fall following victory and defeat. Although well demonstrated in competitions underpinned by dominance (fear-based status derived from force and intimidation), this pattern has not been examined in status contests that depend solely on prestige—respect-based status derived from success, skills, and knowledge in locally valued domains, devoid of fear or antagonism. Thus, the hormonal mechanisms underlying prestige-based status are largely unknown. Here, we examine the effects of previous experiences of prestige—assessed using community-wide nominations of talent and advice provision— on intraindividual changes in testosterone in a large-scale naturalistic community. Results revealed that men who achieve high standing in the group’s prestige hierarchy in the initial weeks of group formation show a rise in testosterone over the subsequent 2 months, whereas men with low-prestige show a decline or little change in testosterone—a pattern consistent with the functional significance of context-specific testosterone responses. No significant associations were found in women. These results suggest that the long-term up- and downregulation of testosterone provides a mechanism through which past experiences of prestige calibrate psychological systems in a manner that adaptively guides future efforts in seeking and maintaining prestige.
... above mentioned Britons' survey and Ref. [8], for instance). It is known that competitive games (even chess) decrease the testosterone levels of losers and increase the testosterone levels of the winners [9], [10]. What game can be more competitive (and deadly serious) than stock market trading? ...
It is shown that the 8 weeks cycle and self-organized criticality at stock markets may have a biological origin related to a 4 weeks hormonal cycle. Threshold triggering mechanism of decision making is responsible for the period doubling (8 weeks instead of 4 weeks) and for the self-organized criticality. The hormonal cycle and the self-organized criticality can serve as stabilizing factors for the stock market fluctuations dynamic.
... Alternatively, our modest sample may be underpowered, with limited ability to detect relationships lacking substantial effect sizes. However, our sample size is comparable to those in many earlier studies examining competition and spectator effects (e.g., Bernhardt et al. 1998;Booth et al. 1989;Carré 2009;Elias et al. 1981;Gonzalez-Bono et al. 1999;Mazur et al. 1992;Suay et al. 1999;Wagner et al. 2002), and we find several relationships suggesting that fathers do have physiological responses to watching their children compete. ...
This study examined steroid production in fathers watching their children compete, extending previous research of vicarious success or failure on men's hormone levels. Salivary testosterone and cortisol levels were measured in 18 fathers watching their children play in a soccer tournament. Participants completed a survey about the game and provided demographic information. Fathers with higher pre-game testosterone levels were more likely to report that referees were biased against their children's teams, and pre- to post-game testosterone elevation was predicted by watching sons compete rather than daughters as well as perceptions of unfair officiating. Pre-game cortisol was not associated with pre-game testosterone nor with perceived officiating bias, but cortisol did fluctuate synergistically with testosterone during spectator competition. While fathers showed no consistent testosterone change in response to winning or losing, pre-game testosterone may mediate steroid hormone reactivity to other aspects of their children's competition.
... Increases in testosterone both before and after competition may be partially responsible for determining behavioural reactions to competition outcomes also in humans. For instance, anticipatory and post-competition increases in testosterone have been observed in winners of tennis matches [43], laboratory aggression paradigms [44] and even chess matches [45]. These results should be interpreted with caution, however, as many studies relied on small samples and there are several failures to replicate. ...
Our understanding of animal contests and the factors that affect contest dynamics and decisions stems from a long and prosperous collaboration between empiricists and theoreticians. Over the last two decades, however, theoretical predictions regarding the factors that affect individual decisions before, during and after a contest are becoming increasingly difficult to test empirically. Extremely large sample sizes are necessary to experimentally test the nuanced theoretical assumptions surrounding how information is used by animals during a contest, how context changes the information used, and how individuals change behaviour as a result of both the information available and the context in which the information is acquired. In this review, we discuss how the investigation of contests in humans through the collaboration of biologists and psychologists may advance contest theory and dynamics in general. We argue that a long and productive history exploring human behaviour and psychology combined with technological advancements provide a unique opportunity to manipulate human perception during contests and collect unbiased data, allowing more targeted examinations of particular aspects of contest theory (e.g. winner/loser effects, information use as a function of age). We hope that our perspective provides the impetus for many future collaborations between biologists and psychologists.
... Some research, for instance, has supported that away games induce different hormonal responses to competition when compared with home games (Arruda et al., 2014;Cunniffe, Morgan, Baker, Cardinale, & Davies, 2015). In literature looking at game outcome, there is support that winners tend to have lower cortisol levels (Bateup et al., 2002) and higher testosterone levels (Mazur, Booth, & Dabbs, 1992) postcompetition. Findings from other studies, however, have been mixed, depending on the type of sport and timing of the collection (pre-vs. ...
This study assessed the hormonal and psychological responses to a free-throw shooting competition in twelve NCAA Division I female collegiate basketball players. Salivary cortisol, alpha-amylase, and testosterone were collected before and after the competition, in addition to a self-reported measure of anxiety. Using nonparametric statistics, cortisol (Z = –3.06, p =.002) and testosterone (Z = –2.67, p =.008) levels were significantly higher precompetition compared with postcompetition. There were no statistically significant differences between winners and losers for anxiety or hormone responses. Concentration disruption (rho =.63, p =.03) and total competitive anxiety (rho =.68, p =.02) were positively correlated with precompetition cortisol. Concentration disruption also correlated positively with postcompetition cortisol (rho =.62 p =.03) and postcompetition testosterone (rho =.64, p =.03). Future studies are needed to examine the psychological and physiological stress responses of basketball players during different competition tasks.
... In addition, they found that the increase in testosterone was higher before matches that were perceived as more important. Similarly, Mazur, Booth, and Dabbs (1992) showed that a pregame increase in testosterone is 16. For example, Georganas, Tonin, and Vlassopoulos (2015) found some evidence that subjects being observed increase their productivity. ...
The home advantage phenomenon is a well-established feature in sports competitions. In this study, we examine data from 2,013 soccer matches played in the German Bundesliga during the seasons from 2007–2008 to 2016–2017. Using a very rich data set, our econometric analysis that is based on matching methods reveals that the usual home advantage disappears when the game is in the middle of the week instead of being on the weekend. Our results indicate that, as the midweek matches are unevenly allocated among teams, the actual schedules of the Bundesliga favor teams with fewer home games in midweek. The study also shows that these soccer-specific findings may have some implications for the design of contests in general. (JEL D00, L00, D20, Z20)
The present chapter advances the view that women’s mate preferences can be grouped into at least two overarching domains: competitiveness and fatherhood. Theoretical and empirical considerations suggest that female mate preferences evolve in contexts of male competitiveness and often amplify the effects of male–male competition. Evidence for the importance of male–male competition and female choice for competitiveness in humans is reviewed. Evidence is likewise offered for the importance of human fatherhood as an additional domain of female choice outside of male competitiveness. Implications of more inclusive mate preferences for the evolution of cognitive architecture are discussed alongside the social and ethical implications of female choice for competitiveness.
Wide-ranging and inclusive, this text provides an invaluable review of an expansive selection of topics in human evolution, variation and adaptability for professionals and students in biological anthropology, evolutionary biology, medical sciences and psychology. The chapters are organized around four broad themes, with sections devoted to phenotypic and genetic variation within and between human populations, reproductive physiology and behavior, growth and development, and human health from evolutionary and ecological perspectives. An introductory section provides readers with the historical, theoretical and methodological foundations needed to understand the more complex ideas presented later. Two hundred discussion questions provide starting points for class debate and assignments to test student understanding.
Wide-ranging and inclusive, this text provides an invaluable review of an expansive selection of topics in human evolution, variation and adaptability for professionals and students in biological anthropology, evolutionary biology, medical sciences and psychology. The chapters are organized around four broad themes, with sections devoted to phenotypic and genetic variation within and between human populations, reproductive physiology and behavior, growth and development, and human health from evolutionary and ecological perspectives. An introductory section provides readers with the historical, theoretical and methodological foundations needed to understand the more complex ideas presented later. Two hundred discussion questions provide starting points for class debate and assignments to test student understanding.
Wide-ranging and inclusive, this text provides an invaluable review of an expansive selection of topics in human evolution, variation and adaptability for professionals and students in biological anthropology, evolutionary biology, medical sciences and psychology. The chapters are organized around four broad themes, with sections devoted to phenotypic and genetic variation within and between human populations, reproductive physiology and behavior, growth and development, and human health from evolutionary and ecological perspectives. An introductory section provides readers with the historical, theoretical and methodological foundations needed to understand the more complex ideas presented later. Two hundred discussion questions provide starting points for class debate and assignments to test student understanding.
Wide-ranging and inclusive, this text provides an invaluable review of an expansive selection of topics in human evolution, variation and adaptability for professionals and students in biological anthropology, evolutionary biology, medical sciences and psychology. The chapters are organized around four broad themes, with sections devoted to phenotypic and genetic variation within and between human populations, reproductive physiology and behavior, growth and development, and human health from evolutionary and ecological perspectives. An introductory section provides readers with the historical, theoretical and methodological foundations needed to understand the more complex ideas presented later. Two hundred discussion questions provide starting points for class debate and assignments to test student understanding.
Wide-ranging and inclusive, this text provides an invaluable review of an expansive selection of topics in human evolution, variation and adaptability for professionals and students in biological anthropology, evolutionary biology, medical sciences and psychology. The chapters are organized around four broad themes, with sections devoted to phenotypic and genetic variation within and between human populations, reproductive physiology and behavior, growth and development, and human health from evolutionary and ecological perspectives. An introductory section provides readers with the historical, theoretical and methodological foundations needed to understand the more complex ideas presented later. Two hundred discussion questions provide starting points for class debate and assignments to test student understanding.
Competitive outcomes can be significantly influenced by previous experience of winning and losing, whereby all things considered, winners are likely to continue winning and losers are likely to keep losing. Although short-lived, the underlying hormonal changes associated with these effects have been observed into the following day. Here, we assess the functional persistence of winner and loser effects in college baseball by investigating outcomes (splits vs. sweeps) of multigame series played over one or more days. Results show that sweeps occur at disproportionately higher frequencies in single-day series, but drop off to expected levels for multiday series.
According to the Challenge Hypothesis, high levels of testosterone (T) are associated with status-seeking behaviors, especially in competitive situations. However, there have not been many studies about rivals’ social status and pre-competition neuroendocrine responses. The aim of this study was to analyze whether the participants in a chess tournament showed different pre-match testosterone and cortisol levels depending on differences in ELO (i.e., the International Chess Federation rating to rank the competitive potential and social status between players). The sample was six male participants (mean ± SD) aged 25.5 ± 8.4 years with experience in official tournaments of 16.33 ± 5.72 years and an average ELO rating of 2217.67 ± 112.67. Saliva samples were collected before each round for hormonal determination when participants competed against a rival with a different ELO rating. After five competition rounds per participant, higher rival pre-competition T concentrations were shown when playing against the best-rated participant, but there were no differences in cortisol (C). The multilevel model confirmed rises in rivals’ precompetitive T levels modulated by the difference in the opponent´s ELO rating. No significant changes were observed in C. The results suggest that the rival´s status can determine the opponent´s anticipatory neuroendocrine responses to an official chess tournament.
In diesem Kapitel geht es zunächst um die biologischen und kulturellen Grundlagen aggressiven Verhaltens (Abschn. 5.1). In Abschn. 5.2 werden die Rolle von Gefühlen, insbesondere von Ärger und Frustration, aber auch von negativem Affekt allgemein für die Auslösung und Intensivierung aggressiven Verhaltens beschrieben. Um das Erlernen aggressiver Verhaltensschemata sowie die Sozialisierung in die gruppenspezifischen aggressionsbezogenen Normen geht es in Abschn. 5.3. In Abschn. 5.4 werden wichtige situative Einflussfaktoren auf aggressives Verhalten aufgezeigt und in Abschn. 5.5 wird – aufgrund der zunehmenden Relevanz – der Einfluss der Medien auf aggressives Verhalten gesondert behandelt.
This research examines how the intensity of the dynamic competitive interaction with other bidders in ascending auctions influences consumers’ willingness to pay for auctioned products. It focuses on one important aspect of this interaction – the speed of competitor reaction. The key hypothesis is that having one’s own bids reciprocated by competing bidders more quickly increases one’s WTP in an auction. Evidence from five experiments demonstrates this effect and pinpoints the essential aspects of the psychological mechanism that underlies it. In particular, the effect of speed of competitor reaction on bidding behavior (1) is serially mediated by the perception that the auction is more intensely competitive and by a greater desire to win, (2) is distinct from the effects of time pressure and of the auction’s duration or overall rate of progression, (3) is not driven by inferences about the auctioned product’s market value, (4) is not qualified by the number of competing bidders nor due to any inferences about the latter, and (5) hinges on direct competitive interaction with other human bidders.
From football to the ultimatum game to chess to World of Warcraft, games have been used in social and personality psychology research for decades. Games are a unique and powerful method: They are engaging and have the potential to both manipulate and measure psychological constructs. In fact, researchers have used physical games, board games, behavioral economics games, and digital games to study a range of individual differences, interpersonal processes, and social cognitive processes. Furthermore, researchers have the opportunity to create their own games that can be targeted directly toward their topic of interest. Our review provides a primer for social and personality psychologists interested in using existing games or creating new games for their research as a method for understanding attitudes, behaviors, emotions, cognitions, and perceptions.
Little is known about the role of the endocrine system in financial decision-making. Here, we survey research on steroid hormones and their cognitive effects, and examine potential links to trader performance in the financial markets. Preliminary findings suggest that cortisol codes for risk and testosterone for reward. A key finding of this endocrine research is the different cognitive effects of acute versus chronic exposure to hormones: acutely elevated steroids may optimize performance on a range of tasks; but chronically elevated steroids may promote irrational risk-reward choices. We present a hypothesis suggesting that the irrational exuberance and pessimism observed during market bubbles and crashes may be mediated by steroid hormones. If hormones can exaggerate market moves, then perhaps the age and sex composition among traders and asset managers may affect the level of instability witnessed in the financial markets.
This paper describes a biosocial model of status in face-to-face groups. It argues that status ranks are allocated among members
of a group through face-to-face interaction and that the allocation process is similar across each primate species, including
humans. Every member of a group signifies its rank through physical or vocal demeanor. For example, behavioral signs of dominant
status include erect posture, glares, eye contact, strutting, and (in humans) assertive speech. Individuals whose behaviors
exhibit dominance show high or rising levels of testosterone compared to those who exhibit deference. Testosterone and dominance
are reciprocally related. The model relies more on research on males than on females. It is proposed as a theory about both
sexes, but with a caution that little is known about sex differences in the relation of hormones to dominance behavior.
The organised social structure of primate species largely determines individual behaviour. Moreover Keverne et al. in Advanced Views in Primate Biology, Springer, Berlin (1982) [1] have demonstrated that social interaction among confined male talapoin monkeys may result in endocrine changes, and that these in turn may modify behaviour. We have undertaken a study to determine whether similar endocrine changes can be induced in confined human volunteers. Five men were confined on a boat for fourteen days. Repeated plasma samples were taken under controlled conditions for assay of testosterone, prolactin and cortisol. After each sample the men completed a questionnaire to document self-perceived anxiety. The men were also secretly ranked for dominant/aggressive behaviour towards the other males. Significant correlation was found between day-to-day changes in anxiety and stress hormones, cortisol and prolactin. Significant correlation was found also between plasma prolactin, testosterone and rank position for dominance/aggression. It is concluded that under some circumstances social interaction may modify endocrine status in humans.
An excellent correlation was found between salivary testosterone (T) and serum T concentrations, as measured by RIA. Using polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, we have demonstrated that sex steroid-binding globulin could not be identified in the saliva of men with serum sex steroid-binding globulin. After exogenous T administration, saliva and serum T rose abruptly and in parallel. Salivary T concentrations in male patients with thyrotoxicosis were similar to those in normal males, whereas the serum T and sex steroid-binding globulin values were significantly higher in the hyperthyroid patients. This study demonstrates that salivary T levels may be used as an index of free serum T.
This volume is an overview of research examining the relationship between hormones and aggressive behavior. The last 15 years have witnessed a tremen dous growth of knowledge in this area, yet reviews written by specialists are virtually nonexistent. This work is an attempt to provide a comprehensive and cohesive synthesis of this literature. Chapters 1-7 provide an analysis of hor monal influences on the major forms of aggressive behavior, including intermale, interfemale, shock-induced, maternal, territorial, and predatory aggression. The focus of Chapters 8-12 is an examination of the mechanisms through which hormones might act to produce changes in agonistic responding. Genetic, de velopmental, neural, and biochemical influences are considered. It is well known that environment, social context, and experience modulate the effects of hor mones on behavior. Thus, Chapters 13-15 are designed to review the literature concerning hormone-pheromone interactions, hormonal responses to compe tition, and the influence of social context on the endocrine system and aggressive behavior. Frequently, the principles advanced by behavioral endocrinologists are based on research in one species, the rodent. To provide a more comparative perspective and to examine specifically the generality of those principles gen erated for rodents, Chapters 16-22 examine hormone-aggression relationships in a variety of species, including fish, birds, amphibians, reptiles, infrahuman primates, humans, ungulates, and insects. This volume should be useful to both beginning and advanced researchers in animal behavior, behavioral endocri nology, physiological psychology, neuroendocrinology, zoology, physiology, and psychiatry.
Levels of circulating cortisol, testosterone, and testosterone-binding globulin were measured in 15 male wrestlers (18–22 yrs of age) in relation to wrestling bouts and their outcomes. Concentrations of cortisol and testosterone increased consistently during wrestling bouts, while levels of testosterone-binding globulin dropped. Winners of competitive matches showed greater increases in both cortisol and testosterone than did losers. Findings indicate that humans, like other social mammals, may undergo specific endocrine changes in response to victory or defeat. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Changes in testosterone (T) and cortisol (C) were evaluated in males competing in a non-athletic laboratory reaction time task. Subjects were randomly assigned to “win” or “lose” by adjusting feedback regarding their task performance. Further, subjects were randomly assigned to either a Close Contest condition (where one person barely “defeated” his opponent), or a Decisive condition (in which the victory was clear). Throughout competition, samples of saliva were taken and assayed later for T and C. Post-competition mood and attributions were also measured. Winners had higher overall T levels than losers, with no significant difference between Close Contest or Decisive Victory conditions. In contrast, C levels did not differ between winners and losers nor did Condition (Close or Decisive) have any effect. Mood was depressed in Decisive losers compared to all other groups. The results indicate that the perception of winning or losing, regardless of actual performance or merit on the task, differentially influenced T (but not C) levels, and that such hormonal changes are not simply general arousal effects but are related to mood and status change.
This review deals with possible central and peripheral effects of androgens upon primate aggressive behavior. One problem that clouds interpretation of experimental work is that measurements of dominance have often been employed, such as competition tests for food and water. Such measures often do not correlate with those obtained by quantifying aggressive interactions. It should be remembered that very few of the 188 primate species have been studied experimentally and that great behavioral and physiological diversity occurs within the order. Therefore, generalizations about the effects of androgens upon aggressive behavior in primates (including man) should be made with caution.
Serum testosterone and cortisol levels were measured by radioimmunoassay in 14 young male judo competitors, in samples taken 10 minutes before and 45 minutes after two different procedures. The first involved physical exercise and the second competitive fighting. Both procedures were of 5 minutes duration and sessions took place at the same time (between 10:00 A.M. and 12:00 P.M. local time) but on different days. Comparing the two situations over all subjects revealed that testosterone increased after exercise and decreased slightly after Competition. Between subject comparisons suggested that contrary to previous claims, winning or losing did not significantly change the testosterone and cortisol levels. Comparisons of subjects who were members of the Regional Team with individuals who were not part of that group confirmed that members increased their testosterone levels after competition, whereas the nonmembers showed a significant decrease. Moreover, success of the individuals, in their sporting record, correlated positively and significantly with the changes of testosterone observed during the competition. These preliminary results suggest that previous personal experience of success can influence the pattern of the psychoendocrine response to a contest situation.
This paper reports preliminary data from a study designed to examine the relationship between serum testosterone concentration and aggressive behaviors in competitive hockey players. Competitive sports, and particularly hockey, offer the opportunity to study aggressive behavior in a natural setting.
The hormone testosterone appears to have an effect on status processes in small groups of nonhuman primates, and it may be involved in human status processes as well.
Salivary testosterone measurements would appear to be useful in behavioral research, where subjects are often reluctant to provide serum samples. The usefulness of salivary measurements depends upon their reliability, however, which was the focus of the present investigation. In four studies, 270 male and 175 female subjects collected saliva samples at times ranging from 30 min to 8 weeks apart. Subjects collected samples on at least two days, at time of awakening, midmorning, late afternoon, and late evening. Mean testosterone concentration dropped about 50% from morning to evening for both sexes, with largest drops early in the day. Mean reliability was r = .64 across two days and r = .52 across seven-eight weeks. Menstrual cycle effects were negligible. Reliability can be increased by using more than one measurement, and it is probably desirable to combine measurements taken several weeks apart. Salivary assays offer a practical way of measuring testosterone in free-ranging subjects outside the laboratory.
Testosterone and cortisol were measured in six university tennis players across six matches during their varsity season. Testosterone rose just before most matches, and players with the highest prematch testosterone had the most positive improvement in mood before their matches. After matches, mean testosterone rose for winners relative to losers, especially for winners with very positive moods after their victories and who evaluated their own performance highly. Winners with rising testosterone had higher testosterone before their next match, in contrast to losers with falling testosterone, who had lower testosterone before their next match. Cortisol was not related to winning or losing, but it was related to seed (top players having low cortisol), and cortisol generally declined as the season progressed. These results are consistent with a biosocial theory of status.
Free testosterone was measured in the saliva of 89 male prison inmates. Inmates with higher testosterone concentrations had more often been convicted of violent crimes. The relationship was most striking at the extremes of the testosterone distribution, where 9 out of 11 inmates with the lowest testosterone concentrations had committed nonviolent crimes, and 10 out of 11 inmates with the highest testosterone concentrations had committed violent crimes. Among the inmates convicted of nonviolent crimes, those higher in testosterone received longer times to serve before parole and longer punishments for disciplinary infractions in prison. In the housing unit where peer ratings were most reliable, inmates rated as tougher by their peers were higher in testosterone.
Plasma testosterone was determined in 36 male prisoners; 12 with chronic aggressive behavior, 12 socially dominant without physical aggressiveness and 12 who were not physically aggressive or socially dominant. A battery of psychological tests, the Scale of Susceptibility to Annoyances, the California Personality Inventory, the Adjective Check List, the Garabedian Index of Prison Socialization, the Lykken Measure of Anxiety, and the Buss Durkee Hostility Inventory, were administered over the same time period. There was a significantly higher level of plasma testosterone in the aggressive group as compared with the nonaggressive group or with the other 2 groups combined. The socially dominant group also had a significantly higher level of testosterone than the nonaggressive group.
: Plasma testosterone, levels of fighting and verbal aggression in prison and past criminal behavior were studied in 21 young prisoners. In addition, several psychologic tests were administered. Analysis of plasma testosterone showed considerable stability of an individual's values over the 2-week study period, with highly significant differences observed between individuals. Plasma testosterone levels did not differ in fighting and nonfighting individuals. Although there were significant correlations between psychologic tests, the test scales did not correlate either with plasma testosterone or with fighting behavior. The 10 prisoners with histories of more violent and aggressive crimes in adolescence had a significantly higher level of testosterone than the 11 prisoners without such a history. An hypothesis is presented that within a population that is predisposed by virtue of social factors to develop antisocial behaviors, levels of testosterone may be an important additional factor in placing individuals at risk to commit more aggressive crimes in adolescence. Copyright (C) 1972 by American Psychosomatic Society
Experimental literature on nonhuman primates indicates that a male's testosterone level changes when his status changes, rising when he achieves or defends a dominant position, and falling when he is dominated. Three experiments are reported which test for a similar effect among adult human males. In the first experiment, subjects played in doubles tennis matches in which winners received prizes of $ 100 apiece. Most winners of matches who had decisive victories showed subsequent rises in testosterone relative to losers of these matches; however, the winners of one very close match, in which there was no clear cut triumph, did not show testosterone rises. In the second experiment, subjects won $100 prizes, or not, depending on the random draw of a lottery. Winners in this situation, where their fortunes came without any effort of their own, did not show subsequent testosterone rises which were greater than those of losers. The third experiment used the natural setting of a medical school graduation. Rises in testosterone were observed among new recipients of the M.D. degree 1 and 2 days after the ceremony. In these experiments, changes in testosterone showed some relationship to subjects' moods. These results suggest that when a man achieves a rise in status through his own efforts, and he has an elation of mood over the achievement, then he is likely to have a rise in testosterone.
Fifty-eight normal adolescent Swedish boys, aged 16, provided two sets of blood samples for plasma testosterone assays as well as data on a number of personality inventories and rating scales assessing aggression, inpulsiveness, lack of frustration tolerance, extraversion, and anxiety. Physical variables such as pubertal stage, height, weight, chest circumference, and physical strength were measured. There was a significant association (r = 0.44) between plasma testosterone levels and self-reports of physical and verbal aggression, mainly reflecting responsiveness to provocation and threat. Lack of frustration tolerance was also related to testosterone levels. About 40% of the variance in perfectly reliable testosterone measurements could be predicted from equally reliable Physical + Verbal Aggression and Lack of Frustration Tolerance scales. Pubertal stage was correlated with testosterone (r = 0.44), but the above-mentioned relationships could not be accounted for by pubertal stage as a third common variable. Previous hypotheses relating testosterone to strong body build and antisocial behavior, respectively, received only weak or no support.
Social Structure and Test-osterone
- Kemper
- Theodore
Kemper, Theodore. 1990. Social Structure and Test-osterone. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.