Anticipating Peer Ranking Causes Hormonal Adaptations That Benefit Cognitive Performance

Carsten K.W. De Dreu; Klarita Gërxhani; Arthur Schram

doi:10.1177/0002764221996749

Anticipating Peer Ranking Causes Hormonal Adaptations That Benefit Cognitive Performance

Carsten K.W. De Dreu, Klarita Gërxhani^*, Arthur Schram

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Performance ranking is common across a range of professional and recreational domains. Even when it has no economic consequences but does order people in terms of their social standing, anticipating such performance ranking may affect how people feel and perform. We examined this possibility by asking human subjects to execute a simple cognitive task while anticipating their performance being ranked by an outside evaluator. We measured baseline and postperformance levels of testosterone and cortisol. We find that (1) anticipating performance ranking reduces testosterone and increases cortisol, (2) both these hormonal responses benefit cognitive performance, which explains why (3) anticipation of being ranked by a peer increases cognitive performance.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1497-1511
Number of pages	15
Journal	American Behavioral Scientist
Volume	65
Issue number	11
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764221996749
Publication status	Published - Oct 2021
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thank Michael Giffin and Eliska Prochazkova for their assistance with data collection. The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Behavioral Economics Research Priority Grant to AS and a Spinoza Award from the Netherlands Science Foundation to CKWDD (NWO SPI-57-242).

Funding Information:
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Behavioral Economics Research Priority Grant to AS and a Spinoza Award from the Netherlands Science Foundation to CKWDD (NWO SPI-57-242).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 SAGE Publications.

Keywords

cognitive performance
cortisol
hormonal response
performance ranking
testosterone

Access to Document

10.1177/0002764221996749

Persistent URL (handle)

Persistent link

Cite this

@article{a88d5bd204154043bae841be6cdb03a5,

title = "Anticipating Peer Ranking Causes Hormonal Adaptations That Benefit Cognitive Performance",

abstract = "Performance ranking is common across a range of professional and recreational domains. Even when it has no economic consequences but does order people in terms of their social standing, anticipating such performance ranking may affect how people feel and perform. We examined this possibility by asking human subjects to execute a simple cognitive task while anticipating their performance being ranked by an outside evaluator. We measured baseline and postperformance levels of testosterone and cortisol. We find that (1) anticipating performance ranking reduces testosterone and increases cortisol, (2) both these hormonal responses benefit cognitive performance, which explains why (3) anticipation of being ranked by a peer increases cognitive performance.",

keywords = "cognitive performance, cortisol, hormonal response, performance ranking, testosterone",

author = "{De Dreu}, {Carsten K.W.} and Klarita G{\"e}rxhani and Arthur Schram",

note = "Funding Information: We thank Michael Giffin and Eliska Prochazkova for their assistance with data collection. The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Behavioral Economics Research Priority Grant to AS and a Spinoza Award from the Netherlands Science Foundation to CKWDD (NWO SPI-57-242). Funding Information: The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Behavioral Economics Research Priority Grant to AS and a Spinoza Award from the Netherlands Science Foundation to CKWDD (NWO SPI-57-242). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 SAGE Publications.",

year = "2021",

month = oct,

doi = "10.1177/0002764221996749",

language = "English",

volume = "65",

pages = "1497--1511",

journal = "American Behavioral Scientist",

issn = "0002-7642",

publisher = "SAGE Publications Inc.",

number = "11",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Anticipating Peer Ranking Causes Hormonal Adaptations That Benefit Cognitive Performance

AU - De Dreu, Carsten K.W.

AU - Gërxhani, Klarita

AU - Schram, Arthur

N1 - Funding Information: We thank Michael Giffin and Eliska Prochazkova for their assistance with data collection. The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Behavioral Economics Research Priority Grant to AS and a Spinoza Award from the Netherlands Science Foundation to CKWDD (NWO SPI-57-242). Funding Information: The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Behavioral Economics Research Priority Grant to AS and a Spinoza Award from the Netherlands Science Foundation to CKWDD (NWO SPI-57-242). Publisher Copyright: © 2021 SAGE Publications.

PY - 2021/10

Y1 - 2021/10

N2 - Performance ranking is common across a range of professional and recreational domains. Even when it has no economic consequences but does order people in terms of their social standing, anticipating such performance ranking may affect how people feel and perform. We examined this possibility by asking human subjects to execute a simple cognitive task while anticipating their performance being ranked by an outside evaluator. We measured baseline and postperformance levels of testosterone and cortisol. We find that (1) anticipating performance ranking reduces testosterone and increases cortisol, (2) both these hormonal responses benefit cognitive performance, which explains why (3) anticipation of being ranked by a peer increases cognitive performance.

AB - Performance ranking is common across a range of professional and recreational domains. Even when it has no economic consequences but does order people in terms of their social standing, anticipating such performance ranking may affect how people feel and perform. We examined this possibility by asking human subjects to execute a simple cognitive task while anticipating their performance being ranked by an outside evaluator. We measured baseline and postperformance levels of testosterone and cortisol. We find that (1) anticipating performance ranking reduces testosterone and increases cortisol, (2) both these hormonal responses benefit cognitive performance, which explains why (3) anticipation of being ranked by a peer increases cognitive performance.

KW - cognitive performance

KW - cortisol

KW - hormonal response

KW - performance ranking

KW - testosterone

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85102145879&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85102145879&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/0002764221996749

DO - 10.1177/0002764221996749

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85102145879

SN - 0002-7642

VL - 65

SP - 1497

EP - 1511

JO - American Behavioral Scientist

JF - American Behavioral Scientist

IS - 11

ER -

Anticipating Peer Ranking Causes Hormonal Adaptations That Benefit Cognitive Performance

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Access to Document

Persistent URL (handle)

Other files and links

Fingerprint