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Freaky Friday: Test (osterone) This
Filed under A Dude's Guide to Kids, Freaky FridayDec 11by Richard
For years, we dudes have been victims of guilt by association. Okay, we’ve also been just plain guilty a lot of the time, but I’m playing the victim card here and I’m not going to slow down just because the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor. Or whatever. It’s been an accepted bit of conventional wisdom that testosterone makes people grumpy, aggressive and — sometimes — just plain mean. Guess which sex has the most testosterone. No, really. Guess. Yep, it’s dudes.
Guess what. Turns out that, according to a bunch of Euro eggheads, all that conventional wisdom? Not so wise after all.
Testosterone doesn’t cause people to become aggressive or risky as many people believe but actually encourages fairness, according to these European metrosexual longhairs.
“If one were to believe the common opinion, we would expect subjects who received testosterone to adopt aggressive, egocentric and risky strategies regardless of the possibly negative consequences on the negotiation process,” said Christoph Eisenegger of the University of Zurich in a statement.
Instead, the study, published this week in Nature, found that women who received the testosterone behaved more fairly and had fewer conflicts in their negotiations.
Oddly enough, the study was carried out on women. I guess so the researchers could rule out naturally occurring testosterone in those massively high levels you routinely see in virile dudes such as, well, myself. Your humble author.
Notice that in the quote above, the researcher talked about the “common opinion” that folks with testosterone are aggressive. Well, it turns out that it’s more than just common knowledge. That (wrong) belief can actually alter behavior.
The women who thought they had received the hormone, whether they did or not, behaved more aggressively and unfairly than those who believed they had received the placebo.
“It appears that it is not testosterone itself that induces aggressiveness but rather the myth surrounding the hormone,” said economist Michael Naef of Royal Holloway.
What the dudes in the white coats are thinking this time is that testosterone doesn’t promote aggression, but sensitivity to social status. In animals, that comes out as aggression. However, people are a bit more complex. Benign social behavior is more likely to lead to an increase in status than is violence.
Another blow against conventional wisdom!
It also might alter the way we think about behavior from little dudes. I mean, if we don’t automatically forgive their hitting and suchlike, thinking they’re just aggressive because they’ve got all that hi-Test in ‘em, we might just have to find ways to help them behave in a more socially acceptable manner. Can you imagine a world where aggression is limited to the sporting field? That would be nice, yeah?
Science: Confounding your expectations since, well, ever.
Tags: A Dude's Guide to Kids, aggression, Aggressiveness, behavior, Common Knowledge, Conventional Wisdom, dude, Egghead, Eggheads, ego, Eisenegger, Fairness, Freaky Friday, Freaky Friday, Germans Bombed Pearl Harbor, Guilt By Association, Hormo, Humble Author, Knowledge, little dude, little dudes, Longhairs, Man, men, Myth, Negative Consequences, Negotiation Process, Pearl Harbor, People, placebo, Playing The Victim, research, Researcher, richard, science, sex, Social Behavior, sport, study, Testosterone, University Of Zurich, Violence, Wisdom
Tagged as: aggression, Aggressiveness, behavior, Common Knowledge, Conventional Wisdom, dude, Egghead, Eggheads, ego, Eisenegger, Fairness, Freaky Friday, Germans Bombed Pearl Harbor, Guilt By Association, Hormo, Humble Author, Knowledge, little dude, little dudes, Longhairs, Man, men, Myth, Negative Consequences, Negotiation Process, Pearl Harbor, People, placebo, Playing The Victim, research, Researcher, richard, science, sex, Social Behavior, sport, study, Testosterone, University Of Zurich, Violence, WisdomComments Off
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