Testosterone administration increases social discounting in healthy males

Wu, Yin; Liao, Jiajun; Zilioli, Samuele; Wu, Yan; Deng, Huihua; Hong, Li; Tobler, Philippe N.

doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2019.06.013

Cited by 29 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Some such models have also examined the effects on the numerator term in the social discount model, namely, θ . For example, Wu et al (2019) showed that testosterone administration in males increased social discounting for distant others, but had no effect on generosity towards close others. Strikingly, Margittai et al (2015) showed that experimentally induced psychosocial stress appeared to have the reverse effect.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social discounting of pain

Story

Kurth‐Nelson

Crockett

et al. 2020

J Exper Analysis Behavior

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Impatience can be formalized as a delay discount rate, describing how the subjective value of reward decreases as it is delayed. By analogy, selfishness can be formalized as a social discount rate, representing how the subjective value of rewarding another person decreases with increasing social distance. Delay and social discount rates for reward are correlated across individuals. However no previous work has examined whether this relationship also holds for aversive outcomes. Neither has previous work described a functional form for social discounting of pain in humans. This is a pertinent question, since preferences over aversive outcomes formally diverge from those for reward. We addressed this issue in an experiment in which healthy adult participants (N = 67) chose the timing and intensity of hypothetical pain for themselves and others. In keeping with previous studies, participants showed a strong preference for immediate over delayed pain. Participants showed greater concern for pain in close others than for their own pain, though this hyperaltruism was steeply discounted with increasing social distance. Impatience for pain and social discounting of pain were weakly correlated across individuals. Our results extend a link between impatience and selfishness to the aversive domain.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social discounting of pain

Story

Kurth‐Nelson

Crockett

et al. 2020

J Exper Analysis Behavior

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“…the testosterone gel and placebo were packed identically) and purpose of the study. The donation task commenced 3 h post-dosing in accordance with previous pharmacokinetic data [22][23][24][25]. Participants also completed two additional tasks on social cognition that are not reported here.…”

Section: (B) Testosterone Administrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exogenous testosterone increases the audience effect in healthy males: evidence for the social status hypothesis

Zhang

et al. 2020

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Several studies have implicated testosterone in the modulation of altruistic behaviours instrumental to advancing social status. Independent studies have also shown that people tend to behave more altruistically when being watched (i.e. audience effect). To date, little is known about whether testosterone could modulate the audience effect. In the current study, we tested the effect of testosterone on altruistic behaviour using a donation task, wherein participants were asked to either accept or reject a monetary transfer to a charity organization accompanying a personal cost either in the presence or absence of an observer. We administered testosterone gel or placebo to healthy young men ( n = 140) in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, mixed design. Our results showed that participants were more likely to accept the monetary transfer to the charity when being observed compared to when they completed the task alone. More importantly, this audience effect was amplified among people receiving testosterone versus placebo. Our findings suggest that testosterone administration increases the audience effect and further buttress the social status hypothesis, according to which testosterone promotes status-seeking behaviour in a context-dependent manner.

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“…Moreover, these results have been confirmed by more recent studies investigating the role of testosterone administration on gambling behavior. For example, males exhibited elevated impulsive and risky behavior after exogenous testosterone administration compared to the placebo group (Goudriaan et al, 2010;Van Honk et al, 2004;Van Honk et al, 2016;Wu et al, 2019;Wu et al, 2020). However, one study on male college students failed to produce the effects of testosterone using a delay discounting rate task (reflecting impulsive behaviour) (Ortner et al, 2013), possibly because of dose and gender differences (Doi et al, 2015;Wu et al, 2020).…”

Section: Testosterone and Gambling/gambling Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

Hormonal responses in gambling versus alcohol abuse: A review of human studies

Li¹,

Ramoz²,

Derrington³

et al. 2020

Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry

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The endocrine system plays an essential role in communication between various organs of the body to maintain homeostasis. Both substance use disorders (SUDs) and non-substance abuse disrupt this system and lead to hormonal dysregulations. Here, we focus on the comparison between the function of the endocrine system in gambling disorders and alcohol addiction to understand the commonalities and differences in their neurobiological and psychological underpinnings. We review human research to compare findings on gambling addiction and alcohol dependence pertaining to the dynamic interplay between testosterone and cortisol. Understanding and classifying similarities in hormonal responses between behavioural addiction and SUDs may facilitate development of treatments and therapeutic interventions across different types of addictive disorders, while describing differences may shed light on therapeutic interventions for specific disorders. Although research on gambling addiction is in its infancy, such evaluation may still have a positive effect for addiction research, thereby stimulating discovery of "crossover" pharmacotherapies with benefits for both SUDs and nonsubstance addictions. IntroductionAddiction is usually defined as a psychological and physical inability to stop consuming a substance or activity, even though it is causing harmful effects to a person's health and on their social relationships (Goodman, 1990(Goodman, , 2008Sussman and Sussman, 2011;West and Brown, 2013). Some addictions involve dependence on chemical substances, and for this reason are called substance abuse disorders (SUDs) (Heather, 1998). On the other hand, building on Peele's notion (Peele and Brodsky, 1975), addiction does not necessarily have to depend on substance abuse. Instead, it may also refer to a range of excessive behaviours which involve an inability to stop partaking in activities such as gambling (Griffiths, 1990;Rogers, 1998), video game playing (Keepers, 1990), media use (Horvath, 2004) and porn consumption (Phillips et al., 2015). An individual has a behavioural addiction in these circumstances (Association, A.P, 2013). Because of growing evidence from behavioural, neuroimaging and genetic studies over the past decade in the field of behavioural addiction, a recent area of debate is emerging (

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Testosterone administration increases social discounting in healthy males

Cited by 29 publications

References 57 publications

Social discounting of pain

Social discounting of pain

Exogenous testosterone increases the audience effect in healthy males: evidence for the social status hypothesis

Hormonal responses in gambling versus alcohol abuse: A review of human studies

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