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Testosterone is associated with cooperation during intergroup competition by
enhancing parochial altruism
#MMPMID26124701
Reimers L
; Diekhof EK
Front Neurosci
2015[]; 9
(?): 183
PMID26124701
show ga
The steroid hormone testosterone is widely associated with negative behavioral
effects, such as aggression or dominance. However, recent studies applying
economic exchange tasks revealed conflicting results. While some point to a
prosocial effect of testosterone by increasing altruistic behavior, others report
that testosterone promotes antisocial tendencies. Taking into account additional
factors such as parochial altruism (i.e., ingroup favoritism and outgroup
hostility) might help to explain this contradiction. First evidence for a link
between testosterone and parochial altruism comes from recently reported data of
male soccer fans playing the ultimatum game. In this study high levels of
endogenous testosterone predicted increased altruistic punishment during outgroup
interactions and at the same time heightened ingroup generosity. Here, we report
findings of another experimental task, the prisoner's dilemma, applied in the
same context to examine the role of testosterone on parochial tendencies in terms
of cooperation. In this task, 50 male soccer fans were asked to decide whether or
not they wanted to cooperate with partners marked as either fans of the subject's
own favorite team (ingroup) or fans of other teams (outgroups). Our results show
that high testosterone levels were associated with increased ingroup cooperation
during intergroup competition. In addition, subjects displaying a high degree of
parochialism during intergroup competition had significantly higher levels of
testosterone than subjects who did not differentiate much between the different
groups. In sum, the present data demonstrate that the behavioral effects of
testosterone are not limited to aggressive and selfish tendencies but may imply
prosocial aspects depending on the context. By this means, our results support
the previously reported findings on testosterone-dependent intergroup bias and
indicate that this social hormone might be an important factor driving parochial
altruism.
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