Testosterone Rex

by Cordelia Fine

  62. White, R. E., Thornhill, S., & Hampson, E. (2006). Entrepreneurs and evolutionary biology: The relationship between testosterone and new venture creation. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 100(1), 21–34.

  63. Sapienza et al. (2009), ibid. A correlation was seen when analyses were restricted to the lower testosterone range, as with the lottery task, but this assumes a nonlinear effect of testosterone, such that more risk taking is seen in individuals at intermediate levels, not high levels (that is, women with high testosterone and men with low testosterone, relative to their own sex).

  64. Hewlett, S. (January 7, 2009). Too much testosterone on Wall Street? HBR Blog Network. Retrieved from http://blogs.hbr.org/2009/01/too-much-testosterone-on-wall/ on April 15, 2010.

  65. Coates, J. M., & Herbert, J. (2008). Endogenous steroids and financial risk taking on a London trading floor. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105(16), 6167–6172. It’s assumed or inferred that this relationship between T and profits is due to increased risk taking.

  66. Quoted in Solon, O. (July 13, 2012). “Testosterone is to blame for financial market crashes,” says neuroscientist. Wired. Retrieved from http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-07/13/testosterone-financial-crisis on January 13, 2015. Additionally, when things start to go badly in the market, large stress-triggered increases in cortisol are thought to adversely affect decision making.

  67. Apicella, C. L., Dreber, A., & Mollerstrom, J. (2014). Salivary testosterone change following monetary wins and losses predicts future financial risk-taking. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 39, 58–64.

  68. Leproult, R., & Van Cauter, E. (2011). Effect of 1 week of sleep restriction on testosterone levels in young healthy men. JAMA, 305(21), 2173–2174.

  69. Of three testosterone manipulation studies with women, two failed to find any effects on risk taking on lottery tasks. Zethraeus, N., Kocoska-Maras, L., Ellingsen, T., von Schoultz, B., Hirschberg, A. L., & Johannesson, M. (2009). A randomized trial of the effect of estrogen and testosterone on economic behavior. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 106(16), 6535–6538; Boksem, M. A. S., Mehta, P. H., Van den Bergh, B., van Son, V., Trautmann, S. T., Roelofs, K., et al. (2013). Testosterone inhibits trust but promotes reciprocity. Psychological Science, 24(11), 2306–2314. A small third study found that testosterone administration increased risk taking in the Iowa Gambling task, which typically finds slightly greater female risk-taking. van Honk, J., Schutter, D. J. L. G., Hermans, E. J., Putman, P., Tuiten, A., & Koppeschaar, H. (2004). Testosterone shifts the balance between sensitivity for punishment and reward in healthy young women. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 29(7), 937–943. The one study to manipulate testosterone in men found that those in the high testosterone group were more risk seeking in the Balloon Task, but not in the Iowa Gambling Task, or a third risk-taking task involving dice. Goudriaan, A. E., Lapauw, B., Ruige, J., Feyen, E., Kaufman, J. M., Brand, M., et al. (2010). The influence of high-normal testosterone levels on risk-taking in healthy males in a 1-week letrozole administration study. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 35(9), 1416–1421. More precisely, the intervention involved creating either high-normal testosterone levels and low-normal levels of estradiol, or low-normal testosterone levels and high-normal levels of estradiol.

  70. Cueva et al. (2015), ibid.

  71. See, for example, Solon (2012), ibid. Coates additionally suggests that since women are less susceptible to stress arising from financial competition, being more concerned with social competition, they will also be less susceptible than men to adverse effects on decision making from large increases in cortisol. However, the idea that a female trader would not find losing large sums of money stressful seems rather implausible.

  72. For example, Ryan, M., Haslam, S., Hersby, M., Kulich, C., & Atkins, C. (2007). Opting out or pushed off the edge? The glass cliff and the precariousness of women’s leadership positions. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 1(1), 266–279.

  73. Ibarra, H., Gratton, L. & Maznevski, M. (March 10, 2009). Claims that women are inherently more cautious are deeply troubling. Financial Times. Retrieved from http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/00829b22-0d14-11de-a555-0000779fd2ac.html#axzz3wbxCXczm on January 3, 2015.

  74. Interview with The Naked Scientists (August 3, 2015). The truth behind testosterone. Transcript retrieved from http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/interviews/interview/1001388/ on December 3, 2015.

  75. According to Kristof (2009), ibid., the consensus at the World Economic Forum at Davos was that this would be the optimal bank.

  76. Prügl (2012), ibid. Quoted on p. 22.

  77. Nelson (2013), ibid. Quoted on pp. 205–206.

  78. As described by U.S. senator Jim Bunning. Cited on p. 657 in McDowell, L. (2010). Capital culture revisited: Sex, testosterone and the city. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 34(3), 652–658.

  PART THREE: FUTURE

  1. Decent, T. (November 3, 2015). Melbourne Cup 2015: Winning jockey Michelle Payne hits back at doubters after making history on Prince of Penzance. Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from http://www.smh.com.au/sport/horseracing/melbourne-cup-2015-winning-jockey-michelle-payne-hits-back-at-doubters-after-making-history-on-prince-of-penzance-20151103-gkpouv.html on April 1, 2016.

  CHAPTER 8: VALE REX

  1. Women’s Social and Political Union (1903).

  2. See, for example, Auster, C., & Mansbach, C. (2012). The gender marketing of toys: An analysis of color and type of toy on the Disney store website. Sex Roles, 67(7–8), 375–388; Blakemore, J., & Centers, R. (2005). Characteristics of boys’ and girls’ toys. Sex Roles, 53(9/10), 619–633; Kahlenberg, S., & Hein, M. (2010). Progression on Nickelodeon? Gender-role stereotypes in toy commercials. Sex Roles, 62(11–12), 830–847.

  3. Campaigns include Pink Stinks (www.pinkstinks.co.uk) and Let Toys Be Toys (www.lettoysbetoys.org.uk) in the United Kingdom and Play Unlimited in Australia (www.playunlimited.org.au). For critical comments by politicians, see BBC News (February 6, 2014), Aiming toys at just boys or girls hurts economy—minister. BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-26064302 on September 8, 2014; Paton, G. (January 16, 2014). “Gender specific toys ‘put girls off’ maths and science,” says Education Minister. The Telegraph. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10578106/Gender-specific-toys-put-girls-off-maths-and-science.html on September 8, 2014. For critical commentary by psychologists, see Fine, C. (March 31, 2014). Biology doesn’t justify gender divide for toys. New Scientist. Retrieved from http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn25306-biology-doesnt-justify-gender-divide-for-toys.html#.VA1TYfmSwjA on September 8, 2014; Hines, M. (July 12, 2013). There’s no good reason to push pink toys on girls. The Conversation. Retrieved from http://theconversation.com/theres-no-good-reason-to-push-pink-toys-on-girls-15830 on September 10, 2013. For criticism by marketers see, for example, comments by Thinkbox chief executive Lindsey Clay, The Marketing Society Forum. (2014). Should all marketing to children be gender-neutral? Marketing (March 7). Retrieved from http://m.campaignlive.co.uk/article/1283685/marketing-children-gender-neutral on September 8, 2014.

  4. Hoff Sommers, C. (December 6, 2012). You can give a boy a doll, but you can’t make him play with it. The Atlantic. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2012/12/you-can-give-a-boy-a-doll-but-you-cant-make-him-play-with-it/265977/ on January 7, 2013.

  5. The Marketing Society Forum (2014), ibid. Knox condemns marketing that reinforces prejudices or limits children’s occupational aspirations—by which he presumably means, for example, doctor and nurse sets labelled as “for boys” and “for girls,” respectively.

  6. Colarelli, S., & Dettmann, J. (2003). Intuitive evolutionary perspectives in marketing practices. Psychology and Marketing, 20(9), 837–865. Quoted on p. 858.

  7. Saad, G. (2007). The evolutionary bases of consumption. Mahwah, NJ: Earlbaum. Quoted on p. 71.


  8. Delingpole, J. (January 23, 2014). Why it’s not sexist to say boys should never play with dolls. Sunday Express. Retrieved from http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/life/455465/Stop-making-our-children-neutral-let-boys-and-girls-play-with-gender-specific-toys on January 25, 2014.

  9. Ireland, J. (December 2, 2014) “No gender ‘December’”: Greens senator calls for end to gender-based toys. Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/no-gender-december-greens-senator-calls-for-end-to-genderbased-toys-20141202-11y4ro.html on April 27, 2015.

  10. See (December 2, 2014), No gender-December—Don’t let old-fashioned stereotypes limit children’s festive fun. Retrieved from greens.org.au/node/6713 on January 3, 2015.

  11. See Waters, L. (December 2, 2014). Let toys be toys. The Hoopla. Retrieved from http://thehoopla.com.au/let-toys-toys/ on January 3, 2015.

  12. Wilson, L. (December 2, 2014). “Christmas shoppers should not buy gender based toys for kids,” Greens say. Daily Telegraph. Retrieved from http://m.dailytelegraph.com.au/lifestyle/parenting/christmas-shoppers-should-not-buy-gender-based-toys-for-kids-greens-say/story-fni0dobt-1227141319300 on August 3, 2015.

  13. Ireland (2014), ibid.

  14. Medhora, S. (December 2, 2014). No gender December: Abbott criticises bid to end gender stereotypes in toys. The Guardian. Retrieved from m/world/2014/dec/02/no-gender-december-abbott-criticises-bid-to-end-gender-stereotypes-in-toys August 3, 2014.

  15. Tavris, C. (1992). The mismeasure of woman: Why women are not the better sex, the inferior sex, or the opposite sex. New York: Touchstone. Quoted on p. 212.

  16. Pagel, M. (2012). Wired for culture: Origins of the human social mind. New York: Norton. Quoted on p. 4.

  17. Wood, W., & Eagly, A. H. (2002). A cross-cultural analysis of the behavior of women and men: Implications for the origins of sex differences. Psychological Bulletin, 128(5), 699–727.

  18. Fausto-Sterling, A. (2012). Sex/gender: Biology in a social world. New York: Routledge. Quoted on p. xiii.

  19. This means that the developmental system is, in fact, an integral part of evolutionary processes, which act on individuals, not directly on individual genes. Jablonka, E., & Lamb, M. J. (2007). Précis of evolution in four dimensions. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 30(4), 353–365.

  20. Pagel, M. (2012). Adapted to culture. Nature, 482, 297–299. Quoted on p. 298.

  21. Haun, D. B. M., Rekers, Y., & Tomasello, M. (2013). Children conform to the behavior of peers: Other great apes stick with what they know. Psychological Science, 25(12), 2160–2167.

  22. Chudek, M., & Henrich, J. (2011). Culture-gene coevolution, norm-psychology and the emergence of human prosociality. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15(5), 218–226.

  23. Sweet, E. V. (2013). Boy builders and pink princesses (Doctoral thesis). University of California Davis.

  24. Connellan, J., Baron-Cohen, S., Wheelwright, S., Batki, A., & Ahluwalia, J. (2000). Sex differences in human neonatal social perception. Infant Behavior and Development, 23(1), 113–118.

  25. See Levy, N. (2004). Book review: Understanding blindness. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 3, 315–324; Nash, A., & Grossi, G. (2007). Picking Barbie’s brain: Inherent sex differences in scientific ability? Journal of Interdisciplinary Feminist Thought, 2(1), 5.

  26. Escudero, P., Robbins, R. A., & Johnson, S. P. (2013). Sex-related preferences for real and doll faces versus real and toy objects in young infants and adults. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 116(2), 367–379.

  27. Zosuls, K., Ruble, D. N., & Tamis-LeMonda, C. S. (2014). Self-socialization of gender in African American, Dominican immigrant, and Mexican immigrant toddlers. Child Development, 85(6), 2202–2217.

  28. Lamminmäki, A., Hines, M., Kuiri-Hänninen, T., Kilpeläinen, L., Dunkel, L., & Sankilampi, U. (2012). Testosterone measured in infancy predicts subsequent sex-typed behavior in boys and in girls. Hormones and Behavior, 61, 611–616.

  29. Martin, C. L., & Ruble, D. N. (2004). Children’s search for gender cues: Cognitive perspectives on gender development. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 13(2), 67–70.

  30. LoBue, V., & DeLoache, J. S. (2011). Pretty in pink: The early development of gender-stereotyped colour preferences. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 29(3), 656–667.

  31. Shutts, K., Banaji, M. R., & Spelke, E. S. (2010). Social categories guide young children’s preferences for novel objects. Developmental Science, 13(4), 599–610.

  32. Hines, M., Pasterski, V., Spencer, D., Neufeld, S., Patalay, P., Hindmarsh, P. C., et al. (2016). Prenatal androgen exposure alters girls’ responses to information indicating gender-appropriate behaviour. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 371(1668). doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.0125

  33. For example, Masters, J., Ford, M., Arend, R., Grotevant, H., & Clark, L. (1979). Modeling and labeling as integrated determinants of children’s sex-typed imitative behavior. Child Development, 50, 364–371; Bradbard, M. R., & Endsley, R. C. (1983). The effects of sex-typed labeling on preschool children’s information seeking and retention. Sex Roles, 9(2), 247–260.

  34. Pasterski, V., Zucker, K.J., Hindmarsh, P. C., Hughes, I. A., Acerini, C., Spencer, D., et al. (2015). Increased cross-gender identification independent of gender role behavior in girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia: Results from a standardized assessment of 4- to 11-year-old children. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 44(5), 1363–1375.

  35. Fine, C. (2010). Delusions of gender: How our minds, society, and neurosexism create difference. New York: Norton.

  36. Jordan-Young, R. (2010). Brain storm: The flaws in the science of sex differences. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; Jordan-Young, R. (2012). Hormones, context, and “brain gender”: A review of evidence from congenital adrenal hyperplasia. Social Science and Medicine, 74(11), 1738–1744.

  37. For example, Wolf, T. M. (1973). Effects of live modeled sex-inappropriate play behavior in a naturalistic setting. Developmental Psychology, 9(1), 120–123.

  38. Wong, W., & Hines, M. (2015). Effects of gender color-coding on toddlers’ gender-typical toy play. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 44(5), 1233–1242.

  39. Wong & Hines (2015), ibid. Effect sizes for sex differences in play with a blue train and a pink doll at Time 2 were d = 0.68 and d = –0.55, respectively. Effect sizes for sex differences in play with a pink train and a blue doll at Time 2 were d = 0.26 and d = –0.21, respectively. A positive effect size corresponds to greater male interest.

  40. Colyle, E. F., & Liben, L. S. (2016). Affecting girls’ activity and job interests through play: The moderating roles of personal gender salience and game characteristics. Child Development, 87(2), 414–428.

  41. Griffiths, P. E. (2002). What is innateness? The Monist, 85(1), 70–85.

  42. For a recent articulation, see Gangestad, S. W., Haselton, M. G., & Buss, D. M. (2006). Evolutionary foundations of cultural variation: Evoked culture and mate preferences. Psychological Inquiry, 17(2), 75–95.

  43. Griffiths (2002), ibid. Quoted on p. 74.

  44. Dupré, J. (2001). Human nature and the limits of science. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. All quotations from p. 31.

  45. Gottlieb, G. (2007). Probabilistic epigenesis. Developmental Science, 10(1), 1–11. Citing the work of Hood, K. (2005). Development as a dependent variable: Robert B. Cairns on the psychobiology of aggression. In D. M. Stoff & E. J. Susman (Eds.), Developmental psychobiology of aggression (pp. 225–251). New York: Cambridge University Press. These effects were also moderated by age and experience.

  46. Rosenblatt, J. S. (1967). Nonhormonal basis of maternal behavior in the rat. Science, 156, 1512–1514.

  47. Haslam, N. (2011). Genetic essentialism, neuroessentialism, and stigma: Comment on Dar-Nimrod & Heine (2011). Psychological Bulletin, 137(5), 819–824. Quoted on p. 819.

  48. Brescoll, V., & LaFrance, M. (2004). The correlates and consequences of newspaper reports of research on sex differe
nces. Psychological Science, 15(8), 515–520; Coleman, J., & Hong, Y.-Y. (2008). Beyond nature and nurture: The influence of lay gender theories on self-stereotyping. Self and Identity, 7(1), 34–53; Martin, C. L., & Parker, S. (1995). Folk theories about sex and race differences. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21(1), 45–57.

  49. Skewes, L., Fine, C., & Haslam, N. (2015). When boys will be boys, should women be women (and know their place)? Evidence from two nations on the relations between gender essentialism, gender bias, and backlash. Unpublished manuscript.

  50. Gaunt, R. (2006). Biological essentialism, gender ideologies, and role attitudes: What determines parents’ involvement in child care. Sex Roles, 55(7–8), 523–533.

  51. Tinsley, C. H., Howell, T. M., & Amanatullah, E. T. (2015). Who should bring home the bacon? How deterministic views of gender constrain spousal wage preferences. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 126, 37–48.

  52. Dar-Nimrod, I., & Heine, S. (2006). Exposure to scientific theories affects women’s math performance. Science, 314(5798), 435; Thoman, D., White, P., Yamawaki, N., & Koishi, H. (2008). Variations of gender-math stereotype content affect women’s vulnerability to stereotype threat. Sex Roles, 58, 702–712.

  53. Dar-Nimrod, I., Heine, S. J., Cheung, B. Y., & Schaller, M. (2011). Do scientific theories affect men’s evaluations of sex crimes? Aggressive Behavior, 37(5), 440–449.

  54. Keller, J. (2005). In genes we trust: The biological component of psychological essentialism and its relationship to mechanisms of motivated social cognition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88(4), 686–702; Morton, T., Haslam, S., & Hornsey, M. (2009). Theorizing gender in the face of social change: Is there anything essential about essentialism? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96(3), 653–664.

  55. Wood, W., & Eagly, A. (2012). Biosocial construction of sex differences and similarities in behavior. In J. Olson & M. Zanna (Eds.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 46, pp. 55–123). Burlington, MA: Academic Press.