Abstract
Objectives: Many previous studies have investigated relationships between men’s competitiveness and testosterone. For example, the extent of changes in men’s testosterone levels following a competitive task predicts the likelihood of them choosing to compete again. Recent work investigating whether individual differences in men’s testosterone levels predict individual differences in their competitiveness have produced mixed results. Methods: In light of the above, we investigated whether men’s (N = 59) scores on the Intrasexual Competitiveness Scale were related to either within-subject changes or between-subject differences in men’s salivary testosterone levels. Results: Men’s responses on the Intrasexual Competitiveness Scale did not appear to track within-subject changes in testosterone. By contrast with one recent study, men’s Intrasexual Competitiveness Scale also did not appear to be related to individual differences in testosterone. Conclusions: Our results present no evidence for associations between men’s testosterone and their responses on the Intrasexual Competitiveness Scale.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 321-327 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology |
| Volume | 4 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Early online date | 5 Jun 2018 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Sept 2018 |
Funding
This research was supported by an ERC grant awarded to BCJ, and ESRC studentship awarded to MK. Data files and analysis scripts are publicly available at https://osf.io/abqun/ On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Economic and Social Research Council | |
| European Research Council |
Keywords
- Cortisol
- Intrasexual competitiveness
- Testosterone