Does testosterone impair men's cognitive empathy? Evidence from two large-scale randomized controlled trials
Abstract
The capacity to infer the mental states of others (known as cognitive empathy) is essential for social interactions, and a well-known theory proposes that it is negatively affected by intrauterine testosterone exposure. Furthermore, previous studies reported that testosterone administration impaired cognitive empathy in healthy adults, and that a biomarker of prenatal testosterone exposure (finger digit ratios) moderated the effect. However, empirical support for the relationship has relied on small-sample studies with mixed evidence. We investigate the reliability and generalizability of the relationship in two large-scale double-blind placebo-controlled experiments in young men (N=243 and N=400), using two different testosterone administration protocols. We find no evidence that cognitive empathy is impaired by testosterone administration or associated with digit ratios. With an unprecedented combined sample size, these results counter current theories and previous high-profile reports, and demonstrate that previous investigations of this topic have been statistically underpowered.
Additional Information
© 2019 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society. Manuscript received 08/05/2019; Manuscript accepted 12/08/2019; Published online 04/09/2019; Published in print 09/2019. Ethics: The institutional review boards of Caltech and Claremont Graduate University approved the study, all participants gave informed consent, no adverse events occurred during any experimental session and no participant or researcher was harmed. For experiment 2, the study was approved by the Nipissing University Research Ethics Board. Data accessibility: Data are available from the Dryad Digital Repository: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.jm6qd39 [57] and the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/hztfe). Authors' contributions: A.N. and G.N.: experimental design, manuscript and data analysis; C.F.C.: manuscript; D.T.Z.: manuscript and hormonal assay; T.L.O.: experimental design, data collection and hormonal assay; N.V.W.: manuscript; J.M.C.: experimental design and manuscript. We declare we have no competing interests. Funding for this work was generously provided by Caltech, Ivey Business School, IFREE, Russell Sage Foundation, University of Southern California, INSEAD, Stockholm School of Economics, Wharton Neuroscience Initiative, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada and the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation. The authors specially thank Jorge Barraza, Austin Henderson, Garrett Thoelen, Dylan Manfredi, Kimberly Gilbert, Caelan Mathers, Emily Jeanneault, Nicole Marley, Kendra Maracle, Victoria Bass-Parcher, Nadia Desrosiers, Charlotte Miller, Brittney Robinson, Dalton Rogers, Megan Phillips, Brandon Reimer, Camille Gray, Christine Jessamine and Brandon Reimer who assisted this study, and David Kimball for LC-MS/MS assay testing. The authors thank Ralph Adolphs for his comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.Attached Files
Submitted - 516344.full.pdf
Supplemental Material - rspb20191062_review_history.pdf
Supplemental Material - rspb20191062supp1.docx
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Additional details
- PMCID
- PMC6742992
- Eprint ID
- 92246
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20190114-091654704
- Caltech
- Ivey Business School
- International Foundation for Research in Experimental Economics (IFREE)
- Russell Sage Foundation
- University of Southern California
- Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires (INSEAD)
- Stockholm School of Economics
- Wharton Neuroscience Initiative
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
- Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation
- Created
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2019-01-14Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2023-06-01Created from EPrint's last_modified field