Testosterone is a hormone traditionally associated with aggressive and antisocial behaviors. However, a study published in the journal PLOS ONEshows that high levels of this hormone are also associated with increased honesty.
Testosterone is a hormone that, although it is found in greater amounts in men, is also present in women. It has many known functions, including bone and muscle building and the development of male secondary characters such as tone of voice and beard growth. To investigate the effects of this hormone on human behavior, the researchers, from the University of Bonn (Germany), recruited a group of 91 healthy men andadministered a dose of testosterone as an ointment to half of them. The rest received a placebo, so that no volunteer could know which group of the experiment they belonged to and avoid, in this way, that the result was conditioned. “Neither the subjects nor the scientists in charge of the study knew who had been given testosterone and who had not,” explains Mattias Wibral, one of the authors.
Each participant was placed in a separate booth to play a dice game in which a financial reward was offered to the highest scores. The booths were designed in such a way that it was easy to cheat and inflate the data to get more money. The scientists then applied a statistical procedure to find out which individuals had lied in their results.
“This exercise showed that the subjectswith a higher concentration of testosterone they lied lessthan the subjects who had not received the testosterone supplement, “comments Armin Falk, another of the study authors.” The results contradict the theory that relates testosterone to antisocial behavior, “he adds. The scientist thinks that it is likely that, Altogether, the hormone increases the sense of pride and the need to project a positive image of oneself.
Regarding the underlying physiological mechanism, recent studies suggest that thetestosteroneit affects behavior through less activity in the orbitofrontal cortex of the brain. In addition, this area also plays an important role in lying: a study found that both the orbitofrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex of healthy young people were activated when they tried to deceive someone.
