Many people believe that testosterone has a significant impact on the “destiny” of men.
The Role of Testosterone
Testosterone is known as an extremely important hormone produced by the male body, primarily responsible for maintaining male characteristics. However, as age increases, testosterone levels decrease by about 1% each year after the age of 30-40. A significant decline in testosterone can lead men to face various physiological issues as well as overall health problems.
Testosterone is an extremely important hormone produced by the male body.
However, recent research suggests that the relationship between testosterone and life outcomes may be less significant than previously asserted. In earlier studies, male executives with higher testosterone levels were found to have more subordinates, and financial businessmen with higher testosterone were observed to generate greater daily profits.
Testosterone has been discovered to be higher in men with higher education levels and among self-employed men, indicating a link to entrepreneurial spirit. Less is known about these relationships in women, but one study suggests that for women, challenging socioeconomic conditions in childhood are associated with higher testosterone later in life.
The beneficial effects of testosterone are believed to operate by influencing behavior. Experiments show that testosterone can make a person more aggressive and more willing to take risks, traits that may be rewarded in the labor market, such as in salary negotiations.
However, no research has definitively shown that testosterone affects these outcomes, as there are plausible alternative explanations.
Instead of testosterone influencing a person’s socioeconomic status, it may be that having a more favorable socioeconomic position increases your testosterone levels. In either case, we see a correlation between testosterone and social factors such as income, education, and social class.
There are also reasonable mechanisms for this. First, we know that socioeconomic disadvantage is stressful, and chronic stress can lower testosterone. Second, how a person perceives their status compared to others in society may affect their testosterone levels; studies of sports matches, often between men, frequently find that testosterone rises in winners compared to losers.
It is also possible that some third factors are responsible for the correlations observed in previous studies. For example, higher testosterone in men is associated with good health, and good health may also help individuals succeed in their careers.
Thus, the relationship in men between testosterone and socioeconomic status may simply reflect the impact of health on both.
It is challenging to disentangle these processes and study the effects of testosterone on other factors alone. To achieve this, researchers have applied a causal inference approach known as “Mendelian randomization.”
This utilizes genetic information related to a single factor (in this case, testosterone) to isolate the effect of that factor on one or more outcomes of interest (here, socioeconomic outcomes such as income and education level).
Does Testosterone Really Determine Success?
Many people believe that testosterone has a significant impact on men’s “prospects.”
A person’s circulating testosterone can be influenced by environmental factors. Some, like the time of day, are easily adjustable. Others, such as someone’s health, are not.
Importantly, socioeconomic circumstances can affect testosterone levels. For this reason, even if we observe a correlation between testosterone and socioeconomic status, we cannot determine which is causing which.
This is why genetic information is powerful; your DNA is determined before birth and typically does not change throughout your life (with rare exceptions, such as changes occurring with cancer). Therefore, if we observe a relationship between socioeconomic status and genetic variants related to testosterone, it clearly indicates that testosterone is causing differences in socioeconomic outcomes. This is due to the lesser likelihood of influencing variations in other factors.
In over 300,000 adults participating in the UK Biobank, scientists identified genetic variants associated with higher testosterone levels, separately for men and women.
They then explored how these variants related to socioeconomic outcomes, including income, education level, employment status, and regional deprivation, as well as risk-taking behavior and overall self-reported health.
Consistent with previous studies, researchers found that men with higher testosterone had higher household incomes, lived in less deprived areas, and were more likely to have a college degree and a skilled job. In women, higher testosterone was associated with lower socioeconomic status, including lower household income, living in more deprived areas, and lower chances of obtaining a college degree.
In line with earlier evidence, higher testosterone was associated with better health for men and poorer health for women, and men exhibited more risk-taking behavior.
However, there is very little evidence to suggest that genetic variation related to testosterone enhances socioeconomic status. For both men and women, studies found no impact of genetic variants related to testosterone on any aspect of socioeconomic status, health, or risk acceptance.
As fewer genetic variants linked to testosterone were identified in women, estimates for women are less accurate compared to men. Therefore, the relatively small effects of testosterone on women’s socioeconomic status cannot be ruled out. Future studies may examine these relationships in women using larger samples dedicated to women.
But for men, the genetic results clearly indicate that previous studies may have been biased due to the influence of additional factors, potentially including the impact of socioeconomic status on testosterone. The new research findings suggest that, despite the societal “myths” surrounding testosterone, it may be less important for success and life chances than earlier studies proposed.
