Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Volume 287, Issue 1931, Pages -Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.0976
Keywords
testosterone; social reputation; prosocial preference; status
Categories
Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [31872784, 31600923, 31600928]
- Department of Education Guangdong Province [2018GXJK150]
- Shenzhen University Natural Science Research Fund [SZUGS2020JG07, 860/000002110601]
- Shenzhen Peacock Plan [827-000233]
- China Postdoctoral Science Foundation [8206300293]
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Several studies have implicated testosterone in the modulation of altruistic behaviours instrumental to advancing social status. Independent studies have also shown that people tend to behave more altruistically when being watched (i.e. audience effect). To date, little is known about whether testosterone could modulate the audience effect. In the current study, we tested the effect of testosterone on altruistic behaviour using a donation task, wherein participants were asked to either accept or reject a monetary transfer to a charity organization accompanying a personal cost either in the presence or absence of an observer. We administered testosterone gel or placebo to healthy young men (n= 140) in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, mixed design. Our results showed that participants were more likely to accept the monetary transfer to the charity when being observed compared to when they completed the task alone. More importantly, this audience effect was amplified among people receiving testosterone versus placebo. Our findings suggest that testosterone administration increases the audience effect and further buttress the social status hypothesis, according to which testosterone promotes status-seeking behaviour in a context-dependent manner.
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