Testosterone administration decreases generosity in the ultimatum game.
How do human beings decide when to be selfish or selfless? In this study, we gave testosterone to 25 men to establish its impact on prosocial behaviors in a double-blind within-subjects design. We also confirmed participants' testosterone levels before and after treatment through blood draws. U...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2009-12-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC2789942?pdf=render |
| _version_ | 1819060657421549568 |
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| author | Paul J Zak Robert Kurzban Sheila Ahmadi Ronald S Swerdloff Jang Park Levan Efremidze Karen Redwine Karla Morgan William Matzner |
| author_facet | Paul J Zak Robert Kurzban Sheila Ahmadi Ronald S Swerdloff Jang Park Levan Efremidze Karen Redwine Karla Morgan William Matzner |
| author_sort | Paul J Zak |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | How do human beings decide when to be selfish or selfless? In this study, we gave testosterone to 25 men to establish its impact on prosocial behaviors in a double-blind within-subjects design. We also confirmed participants' testosterone levels before and after treatment through blood draws. Using the Ultimatum Game from behavioral economics, we find that men with artificially raised T, compared to themselves on placebo, were 27% less generous towards strangers with money they controlled (95% CI placebo: (1.70, 2.72); 95% CI T: (.98, 2.30)). This effect scales with a man's level of total-, free-, and dihydro-testosterone (DHT). Men in the lowest decile of DHT were 560% more generous than men in the highest decile of DHT. We also found that men with elevated testosterone were more likely to use their own money punish those who were ungenerous toward them. Our results continue to hold after controlling for altruism. We conclude that elevated testosterone causes men to behave antisocially. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-21T14:30:28Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-cde1276ee45b4d7dad176c05e9ed3789 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-21T14:30:28Z |
| publishDate | 2009-12-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-cde1276ee45b4d7dad176c05e9ed37892022-12-21T19:00:31ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032009-12-01412e833010.1371/journal.pone.0008330Testosterone administration decreases generosity in the ultimatum game.Paul J ZakRobert KurzbanSheila AhmadiRonald S SwerdloffJang ParkLevan EfremidzeKaren RedwineKarla MorganWilliam MatznerHow do human beings decide when to be selfish or selfless? In this study, we gave testosterone to 25 men to establish its impact on prosocial behaviors in a double-blind within-subjects design. We also confirmed participants' testosterone levels before and after treatment through blood draws. Using the Ultimatum Game from behavioral economics, we find that men with artificially raised T, compared to themselves on placebo, were 27% less generous towards strangers with money they controlled (95% CI placebo: (1.70, 2.72); 95% CI T: (.98, 2.30)). This effect scales with a man's level of total-, free-, and dihydro-testosterone (DHT). Men in the lowest decile of DHT were 560% more generous than men in the highest decile of DHT. We also found that men with elevated testosterone were more likely to use their own money punish those who were ungenerous toward them. Our results continue to hold after controlling for altruism. We conclude that elevated testosterone causes men to behave antisocially.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC2789942?pdf=render |
| spellingShingle | Paul J Zak Robert Kurzban Sheila Ahmadi Ronald S Swerdloff Jang Park Levan Efremidze Karen Redwine Karla Morgan William Matzner Testosterone administration decreases generosity in the ultimatum game. PLoS ONE |
| title | Testosterone administration decreases generosity in the ultimatum game. |
| title_full | Testosterone administration decreases generosity in the ultimatum game. |
| title_fullStr | Testosterone administration decreases generosity in the ultimatum game. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Testosterone administration decreases generosity in the ultimatum game. |
| title_short | Testosterone administration decreases generosity in the ultimatum game. |
| title_sort | testosterone administration decreases generosity in the ultimatum game |
| url | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC2789942?pdf=render |
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