Testosterone responses to competition: The opponent's psychological state makes it challenging

Testosterone dynamics during encounter: role of emotional factors

“…It has been proposed that winning or losing is not in itself enough to cause testosterone levels to shift, but that testosterone responses in reaction to competition are moderated by other psychological processes (Salvador and Costa 2009). In support of this theory, a high motivation to win has been positively correlated with changes in testosterone levels during competition (Suay et al 1999), and a high-power motivation predicts testosterone increases among winners and decreases among losers (Schultheiss et al 2005;Van der Meij et al 2010). The challenge hypothesis predicts that testosterone increases throughout a competitive interaction and may in the long term cause a further rise of testosterone in the winner of the competition.…”

“…Van der Meij et al (2010) reviewed two of these theories: the biosocial theory of status (Mazur and Booth 1998) and the challenge hypothesis (Archer 2006). Gleason et al (2009) suggested three hypotheses: (1) that testosterone has a reinforcing effect; (2) the ''Winner-Challenge Hypothesis''; and (3) that elevated testosterone following a competitive dispute might affect behaviors that are associated with winning and territoriality without necessarily directly influencing aggressive behavior.…”

“…The outcome of such an interaction can be relevant for reproductive success, because it could affect the status and thus the mating success of the winner. Therefore, according to the challenge hypothesis, in reaction to a challenging and evolving competition, testosterone should first rise throughout the competition for both winners and losers and, only when considering a long-time interval, further increase among the winners ( Van der Meij et al 2010). These hypotheses have had notable successes in explaining patterns of testosterone production across more than 60 species (Wingfield et al 2000;Muller and Wrangham 2004).…”

A theoretical framework and research agenda for studying team attributions in sport

“…Taken as a whole, results have not supported a clear pattern between competition outcome and hormonal responses of athletes. This has led many researchers to explore other potential causes and studies have since demonstrated that it is the perception of the situation that is largely responsible for neuroendocrine activation (van der Meij et al, 2010;Suay et al, 1999). Thus, hormonal responses to competition are not a direct consequence of winning and losing but rather are mediated by complex psychological processes (Salvador, 2005).…”

Up to the challenge? Hormonal and behavioral responses of free-ranging male Cassin's Sparrows, Peucaea cassinii, to conspecific song playback

“…Social challenges can induce rapid endocrine changes in insects (juvenile hormone : Kou et al, 2008;Tibbetts and Huang, 2010), fish (Oliveira et al, 2002;Pankhurst and Barnett, 1993;Ros et al, 2003), reptiles (Rubenstein and Wikelski, 2005), birds (Beletsky et al, 1992;Ferree et al, 2004;Smith et al, 2005; see above), and mammals (Buck and Barnes, 2003;Setchell et al, 2008) including humans (Fry et al, 2011;van der Meij et al, 2010). However, other studies found no influence of single or repeated social interactions on plasma androgens (birds: Addis et al, 2010;Gill et al, 2008;lizards: Klukowski et al, 1998;Thompson and Moore, 1992) whereas in the Great Tit, Parus major, and Blue Tit, Cyanistes caeruleus, plasma T decreased in response to STI Van Duyse et al, 2004;reviews: Goymann et al, 2007;Goymann, 2009).…”