Testosterone caused economic game players to make better offers.
For the study, published in the renowned journal Nature, some 120 test subjects took part in a behavioral experiment where the distribution of a real amount of money was decided. The rules allowed both fair and unfair offers. The negotiating partner could subsequently accept or decline the offer. The fairer the offer, the less probable a refusal by the negotiating partner. If no agreement was reached, neither party earned anything.
Before the game the test subjects were administered either a dose of 0.5 mg testosterone or a corresponding placebo. "If one were to believe the common opinion, we would expect subjects who received testosterone to adopt aggressive, egocentric, and risky strategies – regardless of the possibly negative consequences on the negotiation process," Eisenegger elucidates.
Fairer with testosterone
The study's results, however, contradict this view sharply. Test subjects with an artificially enhanced testosterone level generally made better, fairer offers than those who received placebos, thus reducing the risk of a rejection of their offer to a minimum. "The preconception that testosterone only causes aggressive or egoistic behavior in humans is thus clearly refuted," sums up Eisenegger. Instead, the findings suggest that the hormone increases the sensitivity for status. For animal species with relatively simple social systems, an increased awareness for status may express itself in aggressiveness. "In the socially complex human environment, pro-social behavior secures status, and not aggression," surmises study co-author Michael Naef from Royal Holloway London. "The interplay between testosterone and the socially differentiated environment of humans, and not testosterone itself, probably causes fair or aggressive behavior".
Maybe testosterone causes people to make more precise calculations of their self-interest? Might higher testosterone levels signal to the brain that one has higher status and that one needs to offer good deals to those with lower status in order to stay on top of the status heap?
By Randall Parker at 2009 December 09 08:41 PM Brain EconomicsPerhaps higher testosterone levels increase the individual's sense of security and enables a noblesse oblige effect. Who doesn't want to be the Don, graciously dispensing favors to his friends?
Higher testosterone makes people horny, which changes the calculus from how to make the most money to how to get laid. If the other person is of the opposite or unknown sex, a generous offer might get one laid. Even if the other person is the same sex, the generosity might seduce a 3rd party and get one laid.
If you hear hooves, think horses not zebras. From both a physiological standpoint and from a natural selection standpoint, the horniness and getting laid factors will far outweigh any consideration of altruism, precision of calculation, status or noblesse oblige.
Does this explain why Democrats seem to make crappy deals?
It would be interesting to learn if the relative sophistication of the subjects was a factor.
I'll throw out some, not unlike Robert's, and based on personal experience, i.e., my own noticeably high testosterone moments:
1) An enhanced sense of security decreases the need to hold onto resources, because one feels secure in one's own power.
2) In agressive team sports, in my case (American) football, there is a strong sense of shared responsibility, and also shared reward.
3) Strong physical desires make more abstract material gain, money, less important.
How about this - testosterone is as much a co-operative as a competitive hormone. Homo sapiens could not survive without male co-operation in building, hunting, and war-fighting. Men have a reputation for competitiveness, women for co-operation, but anybody with two eyes, half a brain and at least thirty years on this planet knows the opposite is true. Men will compete for the leadership position, but once it is established, the rest will co-operate under his leadership for the good of the group.
Perhaps testosterone makes the subject more determined to strike a deal, and therefore willing to offer terms more likely to be accepted.