Does testosterone influence success? Not much, research suggests

Date:
July 28, 2021
Source:
University of Bristol
Summary:
With the Olympics underway, higher testosterone has often
been linked to sporting success, and other kinds of success
too. But beyond sport, new research has found little evidence
that testosterone meaningfully influences life chances for men or
women. In fact, the study suggests that despite the social myths
surrounding testosterone, it could be much less important than
previously thought.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
With the Olympics underway, higher testosterone has often been linked
to sporting success, and other kinds of success too. But beyond sport,
new research has found little evidence that testosterone meaningfully influences life chances for men or women. In fact, the study suggests
that despite the social myths surrounding testosterone, it could be much
less important than previously thought.


==========================================================================
It is already known that in men testosterone is linked with socioeconomic position, such as income or educational qualifications. Researchers from
the University of Bristol's Population Health Sciences (PHS) and MRC
Integrated Epidemiology Unit (IEU) wanted to find out whether this is
because testosterone actually affects socioeconomic position, as opposed
to socioeconomic circumstances affecting testosterone, or health affecting both. The findings are published today [28 July] in Science Advances.

To isolate effects of testosterone itself, the research team applied an approach called Mendelian randomization in a sample of 306,248 UK adults
from UK Biobank. They explored testosterone's influence on socioeconomic position, including income, employment status, neighbourhood-level
deprivation, and educational qualifications; on health, including
self-rated health and BMI, and on risk-taking behaviour.

Dr Amanda Hughes, Senior Research Associate in Epidemiology in
Bristol Medical School: Population Health Sciences (PHS), said:
"There's a widespread belief that a person's testosterone can affect
where they end up in life. Our results suggest that, despite a lot
of mythology surrounding testosterone, its social implications may
have been over-stated." First, the team identified genetic variants
linked to higher testosterone levels and then investigated how these
variants were related to the outcomes. A person's genetic code is
determined before birth, and generally does not change during their
lifetime (there are rare exceptions, such as changes that occur with
cancer). This makes it very unlikely that these variants are affected
by socioeconomic circumstances, health, or other environmental factors
during a person's lifetime. Consequently, any association of an outcome
with variants linked to testosterone would strongly suggest an influence
of testosterone on the outcome.

Similar to previous studies the research found that men with higher testosterone had higher household income, lived in less deprived areas,
and were more likely to have a university degree and a skilled job. In
women, higher testosterone was linked to lower socioeconomic position, including lower household income, living in a more deprived area, and
lower chance of having a university degree. Consistent with previous
evidence, higher testosterone was associated with better health for men
and poorer health for women, and greater risk-taking behaviour for men.

In contrast, there was little evidence that the testosterone-linked
genetic variants were associated with any outcome for men or women. The research team concluded that there is little evidence that testosterone meaningfully affected socioeconomic position, health, or risk-taking in
men or women. The study suggests that -- despite the mythology surrounding testosterone -- it might be much less important than previously claimed.

Results for women were less precise than results for men, so the influence
of testosterone in women could be studied in more detail in the future
using larger samples.

Dr Hughes added: "Higher testosterone in men has previously been linked
to various kinds of social success. A study of male executives found that testosterone was higher for those who had more subordinates. A study of
male financial traders found that higher testosterone correlated with
greater daily profits. Other studies have reported that testosterone
is higher for more highly educated men, and among self-employed men,
suggesting a link with entrepreneurship.

"Such research has supported the widespread idea that testosterone
can influence success by affecting behaviour. There is evidence from experiments that testosterone can make a person more assertive or more
likely to take risks -- traits which can be rewarded in the labour
market, for instance during wage negotiations. But there are other explanations. For example, a link between higher testosterone and success
might simply reflect an influence of good health on both. Alternatively, socioeconomic circumstances could affect testosterone levels. A
person's perception of their own success could influence testosterone:
in studies of sports matches, testosterone has been found to rise in
the winner compared to the loser." The research is supported by the
Health Foundation as part of a project entitled 'Social and economic consequences of health: causal inference methods and longitudinal, intergenerational data', which is part of the Health Foundation's Social
and Economic Value of Health.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Bristol. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Sean Harrison, Neil M. Davies, Laura D. Howe, Amanda
Hughes. Testosterone
and socioeconomic position: Mendelian randomization in 306,248 men
and women in UK Biobank. Science Advances, 2021; 7 (31): eabf8257
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abf8257 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/07/210728140348.htm

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