Testosterone administration impairs cognitive empathy in women depending on second-to-fourth digit ratio

Abstract

During social interactions we automatically infer motives, intentions, and feelings from bodily cues of others, especially from the eye region of their faces. This cognitive empathic ability is one of the most important components of social intelligence, and is essential for effective social interaction. Females on average outperform males in this cognitive empathy, and the male sex hormone testosterone is thought to be involved. Testosterone may not only down-regulate social intelligence organizationally, by affecting fetal brain development, but also activationally, by its current effects on the brain. Here, we show that administration of testosterone in 16 young women led to a significant impairment in their cognitive empathy, and that this effect is powerfully predicted by a proxy of fetal testosterone: the right-hand second digit-to-fourth digit ratio. Our data thus not only demonstrate down-regulatory effects of current testosterone on cognitive empathy, but also suggest these are preprogrammed by the very same hormone prenatally. These findings have importance for our understanding of the psychobiology of human social intelligence.

High testosterone levels and sensitivity to acute stress in perpetrators of domestic violence with low cognitive flexibility and impairments in their emotional decoding process: A preliminary study

“…Nevertheless, it would be necessary to conduct more studies to assess whether these participants have an abnormal metabolism of T (George et al, 2001), higher T levels (Soler et al, 2000), or more sensitivity to activation T effects (Pope et al, 2000). Indeed the 2D:4D ratio could be an indicator of this and so exposure to high T levels in the womb could increase the sensitivity to androgen in adulthood (van Honk et al, 2011) and facilitate physical aggression in men (Bailey & Hurd, 2005). In IPV perpetrators, the 2D:4D ratio of the left hand was smaller than controls.…”

“…Finally, we hypothesized that IPV perpetrators should report lower affective empathy (Covell et al, 2007) and a masculinized or smaller 2D:4D ratio (Bailey & Hurd, 2005). The 2D:4D ratio could explain the high levels of sensitivity to T effects (van Honk et al, 2011) and may predict T changes, especially in IPV perpetrators. As supported in a previous study, heightened feelings of anger are related to high T levels (Herrero, Gadea, Rodríguez-Alarcón, Espert, & Salvador, 2010).…”

Testosterone, Cortisol and Empathy: Evidence for the Dual-Hormone Hypothesis

“…Studies involving the administration of exogenous testosterone in women have provided evidence for a causal relationship between increased testosterone and dampened empathy (Hermans et al 2006;Van Honk et al 2011), while correlational studies have reported an inverse relationship between endogenous testosterone levels and various aspects of empathy, such as caring behavior (Baucom et al 1985), emotional empathy (Harris et al 1996) and empathic accuracy (Ronay and Carney 2013). Fig.…”

“…For example, treatment with exogenous testosterone has been shown to reduce empathic responses in women in a test that measures the automatic, unconscious mirroring of another's motor actions (Hermans et al 2006;van Honk and Schutter 2007). Moreover, the effects of exogenous testosterone on empathy are stronger in women exposed to higher prenatal androgens (Van Honk et al 2011), suggesting that there may be interactions between the organizational and the activational effects of testosterone on empathy.…”

Digit ratio (2D:4D) predicts facial, but not voice or body odour, attractiveness in men

“…Although the precise genetic mechanism explaining this sexual dimorphism is still unclear, there is compelling evidence that in utero foetal testosterone and foetal oestrogen influence 2D:4D ratio in humans [1,[4][5][6]. For example, males suffering from congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), an enzymatic deficiency that entails excessive levels of androgens during the foetal period, have particularly low 2D:4D ratio [7].…”