The common wisdom on testosterone is that it contributes to risky and aggressive behavior, but new research reveals a different pattern. In a study, 121 women were dosed with testosterone or a placebo and then played the ultimatum bargaining game (see Chapter 3 of SuperFreakonomics for more than you ever wanted to know about Ultimatum). The results were counterintuitive: women given testosterone actually made higher initial offers in the bargaining game, resulting in less conflict and more efficient social interactions. The researchers attributed the results to “a desire of the testosterone group to maintain their images — by avoiding rejection — aligning with the so-called social status hypothesis.” [%comments]
Testosterone and the Ultimatum Game
TAGS: women
and 
. You can also watch it on 
Real men don’t do stupid research studies. Testosterone drives us to say, “this is nonsense” and go out for the aforementioned beer.
In studying the actual vs. perceived effects of alcohol, researchers divided the subjects into four groups along two dimensions: alcohol vs.non-alcohol, and having been told the drinks were alcoholic vs. non-alcoholic. Thus some people who had been told they were consuming alcohol, in fact were not, and some who had been told they were consuming orange juice were actually drinking screwdrivers. One result? People who drunk o.j. believing it to be alcoholic acted more “drunk” than the people who had actually consumed alcohol, but believed that they hadn’t.
VERY interesting research that explores parasites’ role in promoting risky behavior in mice:
http://edge.org/3rd_culture/sapolsky09/sapolsky09_index.html
Wow, what brilliant research! Lets give them all hysterectomies and testosterone patches.
Where can I get a job doing research like this?
jeez, if you want it, ante up.
Timothy B. is correct. If a woman takes testosterone for other than a health issue, she is not of the general population of women.
There is a simple alternative explanation that would be consistent with testosterone having no effect (or even mildly cause aggressiveness): The women were asked about whether they believed they had received testosterone or placebo after the experiment. Their guesses were correlated with the treatment, but only weakly so. Suppose women who were greedy tended to justify their greed by ascribing it to testosterone. Given that there are also a few women who actually recognize that they have received a non-placebo drug and do not behave as aggressively, it will necessarily but falsely seem as if testosterone makes people gentle.
The results of the ultimatum game mimic those you would expect from a multiple encounter game. Players who deny the offer seem to act as if the counter player will learn from the result and make better offers in the future after being punished. In multiple encounter prisoner’s dilemma, and in evolution, a propensity to strike the first blow reduces community welfare.
How did this get by their IRB? Testosterone injections can’t be free of side effect risks.