Exogenous testosterone increases men’s perceptions of their own physical dominance

Welling, Lisa L. M.; Moreau, Benjamin J. P.; Bird, Brian M.; Hansen, Steve; Carré, Justin M.

doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2015.11.016

Cited by 60 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…(2013) may have not only experienced increased T levels, but may have also experienced increased perceptions of their own attractiveness or masculinity/dominance Welling et al, 2016)-factors implicated in men's mating success (e.g., Rhodes et al, 2005). Indeed, recent evidence suggests that competition outcome can modulate self-perceptions on sexually-relevant dimensions (e.g., dominance: Watkins & Jones, 2012).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These tasks included the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task , 'Pick Your Own Face Task' (Welling et al, 2016), risk-preference task, moral decision-making task (Arnocky et al, 2016), emotion recognition task, and selective visual attention tasks (inhibition of return) 2 Face preferences task. Participants rated 20 pairs of female faces (each pair with one masculinized and one feminized version of the same individual) twice: once for attractiveness as a short-term partner, and once for attractiveness as a long-term partner.…”

Section: Experiments 1 Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These tasks included the 'Pick Your Own Face' task (Welling et al, 2016), Point Subtraction Aggression Paradigm (Carré et al, in press), Balloon Analogue Risk Taking task, a risk-preference task, and an emotion recognition task 4…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of exogenous testosterone and mating context on men's preferences for female facial femininity

Bird

Welling

Ortiz

et al. 2016

Hormones and Behavior

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Correlational research suggests that men show greater attraction to feminine female faces when their testosterone (T) levels are high. Men's preferences for feminine faces also seem to vary as a function of relationship context (short versus long-term).However, the relationship between T and preferences for female facial femininity has yet to be tested experimentally. This thesis examined the causal role of T in modulating preferences for facial femininity across both short and long-term mating contexts, using two separate experiments. Results of Experiment 1 (within-subject design, n = 24)showed that participants significantly preferred feminized versus masculinized versions of women's faces. Further, participants showed a stronger preference for feminine female faces in the short-versus the long-term context after they received T, but not after they received placebo. Post-hoc analyses suggest that this effect was driven by a lower preference for feminine faces in the long-term context when on T relative to placebo.Results from Experiment 2 (between-subject design, n = 93) were highly consistent with those of Experiment 1: men demonstrated a significant preference for feminized female faces in the short-versus the long-term context after T, but not after placebo administration, and this effect was driven by lower preferences for feminine faces in the long-term context when on T relative to placebo. Collectively, these findings provide the first causal evidence that T modulates men's preferences for facial femininity as a function of mating context.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Experiments 1 Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of exogenous testosterone and mating context on men's preferences for female facial femininity

Bird

Welling

Ortiz

et al. 2016

Hormones and Behavior

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“…There are several important challenges to our understanding of the effects of T on dominance and aggression in humans. Firstly, there are very few studies involving direct manipulation of T in men (Kouri et al, 1995;Pope et al, 2000;O'Connor et al, 2004;Zak et al, 2009;Welling et al, 2016;Carré et al, 2016). Evidence from studies in humans is largely correlational, and, therefore, severely limited when it comes to assessing causal relationships.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testosterone administration does not affect men's rejections of low ultimatum game offers or aggressive mood

Cueva

Roberts

Spencer

et al. 2017

Hormones and Behavior

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Correlative evidence suggests that testosterone promotes dominance and aggression. However, causal evidence is scarce and offers mixed results. To investigate this relationship, we administered testosterone for 48h to 41 healthy young adult men in a within-subjects, double-blind placebo-controlled balanced crossover design. Subjects played the role of responders in an ultimatum game, where rejecting a low offer is costly, but serves to destroy the proposer's profit. Such action can hence be interpreted as non-physical aggression in response to social provocation. In addition, subjects completed a self-assessed mood questionnaire. As expected, self-reported aggressiveness was a key predictor of ultimatum game rejections. However, while testosterone affected subjective ratings of feeling energetic and interested, our evidence strongly suggests that testosterone had no effect on ultimatum game rejections or on aggressive mood. Our findings illustrate the importance of using causal interventions to assess correlative evidence.

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“…Men with higher self-reported social dominance and men with greater stature are also less sensitive to cues of facial dominance than men of shorter stature and lower self-reported social dominance (Watkins, Fraccaro, et al, 2010;. Recently, it was shown that men who received a dose of exogenous testosterone were more likely to pick a more masculine version of their face than men who received a placebo (Welling, Moreau, Bird, Hansen, & Carré, 2016). Taken together, these findings suggest that androgen dependent facial shape and beardedness are used by other males to assess age, sexual maturity, rank and dominance, supporting the view that male secondary sexual traits function in intra-sexual communications (Puts, 2010(Puts, , 2016Puts et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing Evolutionary Hypotheses Regarding Individual Differences in Human Mating Strategies

Sherlock¹

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Finding and attracting a mate is an enormous component of human life, and indeed the life of all sexually reproducing organisms. In this search, we share many common goals in attaining a partner. For instance, most people typically seek a partner who is kind, attractive, and funny. Yet, we also differ remarkably in the traits that we desire in our partners and what drives us towards choosing some mates over others. This variation represents somewhat of a Darwinian paradox, as selection typically reduces variation in traits under strong selection, such as those relating to mating strategy. To resolve this paradox, evolutionary psychologists have proposed adaptive mechanisms that cause variation in mating strategy in response to environmental contingencies. In this thesis, I present tests of a number of these hypotheses, and integrate approaches from evolutionary behavioural genetics to provide alternative explanations as to how variation in mating strategy arises.Firstly, I review broad evolutionary approaches to explaining variation in psychological traits. Specifically, I introduce evolutionary literature regarding a proposed trade-off between parenting traits and signals of genetic quality in males that permeates approaches to various aspects of mate choice. Evidence for and against this trade-off is reviewed in the context of the maintenance of variation in facial masculinity in males and inter-partner variation in female orgasm frequency during penetrative sex. I then introduce behavioural genetics as an approach to understanding both genetic and environmental causes of variation in human mating strategy.In my first empirical study, I present a paper testing evolutionary hypotheses regarding female variation in orgasm frequency in response to male characteristics. Where previous research has focused on women reporting on a single partner and observing male characteristics across the sample, this paper had females report on partners with whom orgasm was easy and with whom orgasm was difficult. This controls for the possibility of confounds relating to between-subject studies and increases our power to detect male traits associated with orgasm over and above between women differences. Furthermore, the study also included measures of male sexual behaviour, as these are highly likely to be related to female orgasmability. We showed mixed support for evolutionary theories regarding variation in the female orgasm, but were unable to distinguish the two leading hypotheses. Additionally, we found important contributions of male sexual behaviour to female orgasm. Consequently, little can be inferred about the role of variation in the evolution of the female orgasm. However, we demonstrate that within-subjects designs are able to detect between-partner variance with high resolution. We also demonstrate that future studies need account for male sexual behaviour when attempting to explain adaptive variation in female orgasm between different male partners.ii I then present a paper providing evidence that facial ...

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Exogenous testosterone increases men’s perceptions of their own physical dominance

Cited by 60 publications

References 54 publications

Effects of exogenous testosterone and mating context on men's preferences for female facial femininity

Effects of exogenous testosterone and mating context on men's preferences for female facial femininity

Testosterone administration does not affect men's rejections of low ultimatum game offers or aggressive mood

Testing Evolutionary Hypotheses Regarding Individual Differences in Human Mating Strategies

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