Teacher? Pilot? Doctor? Physical? Engineer? Social worker? Journalist? Thesex hormonesconditionthe professions we prefer to practice, according to a study carried out by psychologists from Penn State University (USA).
“Our hormones condition whether we show more interest incollege careers based on working with thingsor by thosebased on contact with people“, say Sheri A. Berenbaum and her colleagues, who publish their conditions in the magazineHormones and Behavior. Studying the differences of female patients suffering from Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH), a genetic disease characterized by aoverproduction of androgen, a male sex hormone. The research revealed that these women were more interested in studying careers related to “working with things” (engineering, technology careers, mathematics …). The degree of interest in the first group of university studies was directly proportional to the amount of androgen to which the patients had been exposed throughout their lives. “We have taken advantage of a natural experiment that shows that these interests begin to develop from the moment we are born,” concludes Berenbaum.
According to the researcher,healthy womennot exposed to high levels of androgens normally tend tochoosing occupations that involve interaction with other people, as a social worker, teacher, nurse, lawyer … Men, on the other hand, tend to show greater predisposition to choose professions such as engineer, physicist, pilot or surgeon.
