How do you make a woman more fair? Give them testosterone!
Testosterone link to aggression 'all in the mind'
Giving women more of the male hormone testosterone can turn them into fairer and more amiable game players, according to tests.
A
single dose of testosterone was enough to have this effect, European
scientists found, but only if the woman was oblivious to the treatment.
If she realised she had received the hormone and not a dummy drug, she turned to greed and selfishness.
The work in Nature magazine suggests the mind can win over hormones.
Testosterone
induces anti-social behaviour in humans, but only because of our own
prejudices about its effect rather than its biological activity, suggest
the authors.
They believe the same is true in men, although they only studied women.
Power of suggestion
For the study, they asked more than 120 women to pair up and play an "ultimatum" bargaining game with real money at stake.
In
the game, one of the pair is the "proposer" and is tasked with
suggesting to the other player - the responder - how to split the money
between them.
The responder can then only accept or reject the offer.
 |
If they reject it, neither of the pair gets any of the cash.
The
researchers gave the proposers either a dummy pill or one containing
testosterone, but did not tell the women which pill they had been given.
Once they had played the game, the proposers were asked to say which pill they thought they had taken.
Those who received testosterone behaved more fairly, had fewer bargaining conflicts and were better at social interactions.
However,
women who thought that they had received testosterone, whether or not
they actually did, behaved more unfairly than those who thought that
they had received placebo, again whether or not they actually did.
The
researchers, led by Ernst Fehr of the University of Zurich,
Switzerland, said the results suggested a case of "mind over matter"
with the brain overriding body chemistry.
"Whereas other animals
may be predominantly under the influence of biological factors such as
hormones, biology seems to exert less control over human behaviour,"
they said.
UK endocrinologist Professor Ashley Grossman said: "This puts hormones in their place.
"Hormones
provide a basic backdrop, but changes in levels will do little to
behaviour compared to personality, culture and society."
Top Opinion
-
Lily Blooms Eternal 2011/04/20 01:15:12
It's been proven that giving men and women doses of testosterone does nothing but make them more highly sexed and even aggressive.
In addition, biology exerts a great deal of control over human behavior. That's why some women completely flip our while menstruating and why others do not. Did these scientists document the other hormone levels in these women? Check the medication they're taking? Medical background? Where's the necessary data? And how did they choose this pool of testers? This article leaves a lot out.
The idea that not using men is a "warning light" has no basis. The "women became more amiable and fair on testosterone" idea is a secondary ruling in this study, not the outright purpose of conducting the study.
Perhaps testosterone really does make women more fair or rather more inclined to generosity. In the instances I've read in which women have taken doses of testosterone, it hasn't mentioned a thing about increased aggression. So it's quite possible, in addition to making them more highly sexed, that it also makes them more 'fair'.
But that doesn't rule out testosterone as a ignitor in male aggression, which is why an identical study should have been done on males. I'm not ruling out this article's conclusions, because they could be right; I just haven't seen the parts of the report that usually help me make up my mind, and they didn't do an identical study on men, so providing this one single-gender study on the gender that is not naturally supplied with a lot of testosterone...
Perhaps testosterone really does make women more fair or rather more inclined to generosity. In the instances I've read in which women have taken doses of testosterone, it hasn't mentioned a thing about increased aggression. So it's quite possible, in addition to making them more highly sexed, that it also makes them more 'fair'.
But that doesn't rule out testosterone as a ignitor in male aggression, which is why an identical study should have been done on males. I'm not ruling out this article's conclusions, because they could be right; I just haven't seen the parts of the report that usually help me make up my mind, and they didn't do an identical study on men, so providing this one single-gender study on the gender that is not naturally supplied with a lot of testosterone as grounds for making an overall statement that "Hormones provide a basic backdrop, but changes in levels will do little to behaviour compared to personality, culture and society" is not adequate for me.
So basically? I'm reserving judgement on their report, and I don't agree with their conclusion on the roles of hormones.
The article is not their lab report. It does not provide the exact percentages of females in each category and with each response. It has not provided the factors and error margins that are always taken into consideration. So of course I'm rolling my eyes-- I don't have enough here to be able to nod, smile, and agree!
"Treat her like a lady!!!"
pull her chair out for her,
open the doors for her, both car and building,
hold her coat for her,
step between her and the car driving through a puddle.
let her know she is the greatest thing that ever came into your life.
Does that help?
I'm thinking in a different context of "fair" as in, she is my fair lady, chivalry and those things that our dads taught us.
My mistake, but do you see my point now? Thank you for helping me to see it.
Although it is implying that a single dose of Testosterone is somehow .. allowing these women to proceed more /fairly/ in the disposition of a 'reward' during this experiment ..
I have to wonder ...
Could be what they say ..
BUT ..
It could also mean that these women (as part of their natural personality) were morally more 'fair' to begin with (since I don't see where this consideration was factored in or even discussed for testing...)
I find it very interesting, and insightful, that you apply the term "reward." I do think that the idea of "reward" is stronger within the male sex.
I'd control by re-testing all these women once again .. placebo to the ones that had the Testosterone and see if they continued to be "fair" in their settlements (if that is the same results with the Testosterone (or even close) .. that would invalidate these /results/ quite quickly).
I'll have to look at the study more closely and see if they mixed it up as you suggested. I do believe they did account for this variable, but I am not entirely sure.
and there's NO MENTION of re-testing the Variable Testosterone with Variable Placebo .. or Variable Placebo with Variable Testosterone ..
(TO me .. that would be what I Would do in MY Research Studies .. I never leave out any possible hypotheses or questions just dangling withOUT at least some look at them for the sake of study validity).
Have a nice evening.
Women create testosterone naturally as well.
Thank goodness for guinea pigs willing to take the risk though.
The fact remains that the women became more fair in their dealing when under the influence of just a small amount of testosterone.
Women create testosterone naturally. This test merely elevated their levels for a very short period of time.
I'm not advocating doing that. I'm making a point.