Fluctuations in Cortisol and Testosterone Map to Fluctuations in Opinion Strength in Healthy Men

IF 1.2 Q3 PSYCHOLOGY, BIOLOGICAL

Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology Pub Date : 2024-07-24 DOI:10.1007/s40750-024-00245-2

Benjamin G. Serpell, Blair T. Crewther, Phillip J. Fourie, Christian J. Cook

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Abstract

Opinions are often linked to emotions and stress. It is well established that testosterone and cortisol are useful biomarkers of stress and can predict human emotion and behavior. Therefore, the purpose of this work was to explore whether changes in testosterone and cortisol concentration map to shifts in opinions.

We present three studies with healthy men, where we (1) monitored diurnal changes in testosterone and cortisol alongside political opinion change using a descriptive longitudinal design, (2) assessed testosterone, cortisol and political opinion change in an experimental trial using a physical exercise intervention designed to decrease cortisol concentration and/or increase testosterone concentration, and (3) monitored testosterone and cortisol change with political opinion in a trial with psychosocial intervention designed to increase cortisol concentration/decrease testosterone concentration.

Testosterone concentration and opinion changes were observed across the day (p < 0.05). Furthermore, opinions changed similarly to exercise-induced increases in testosterone (8.6–11.5%), but inversely to exercise-induced reductions in cortisol (p < 0.05). Opinion changes also occurred in similar fashion to testosterone changes following psychosocial intervention (-5.6% to -10.0%), and inversely to cortisol changes (p < 0.05). Finally, opinion change and testosterone change correlated at the within person level (r = 0.17 to 0.33; p < 0.05).

We showed natural fluctuations in testosterone and cortisol covaried in parallel with shifts in opinion. Further, given the emergence of relationships for opinion change with hormone change, we contend that physiological stress response (i.e., testosterone and cortisol change) may predict, or even cause, opinion change.

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皮质醇和睾酮的波动与健康男性意见强度波动的关系

目的观点通常与情绪和压力有关。众所周知，睾酮和皮质醇是压力的有效生物标志物，可以预测人类的情绪和行为。因此，本研究旨在探讨睾酮和皮质醇浓度的变化是否与观点的转变相关联。方法我们对健康男性进行了三项研究：（1）采用描述性纵向设计，监测睾酮和皮质醇的昼夜变化以及政治观点的变化；（2）在一项实验中，采用旨在降低皮质醇浓度和/或提高睾酮浓度的体育锻炼干预，评估睾酮、皮质醇和政治观点的变化；（3）在一项旨在提高皮质醇浓度/降低睾酮浓度的心理干预实验中，监测睾酮和皮质醇与政治观点的变化。结果全天观察到睾酮浓度和观点的变化（p < 0.05）。此外，观点的变化与运动引起的睾酮增加相似（8.6%-11.5%），但与运动引起的皮质醇减少成反比（p < 0.05）。心理干预后，观点的变化与睾酮的变化相似（-5.6% 到 -10.0%），但与皮质醇的变化成反比（p < 0.05）。结论我们发现，睾酮和皮质醇的自然波动与观点的转变并行。此外，鉴于观点变化与激素变化之间的关系，我们认为生理压力反应（即睾酮和皮质醇变化）可能会预测甚至导致观点变化。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology PSYCHOLOGY, BIOLOGICAL-

CiteScore

3.10

自引率

6.20%

发文量

期刊介绍： Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology is an international interdisciplinary scientific journal that publishes theoretical and empirical studies of any aspects of adaptive human behavior (e.g. cooperation, affiliation, and bonding, competition and aggression, sex and relationships, parenting, decision-making), with emphasis on studies that also address the biological (e.g. neural, endocrine, immune, cardiovascular, genetic) mechanisms controlling behavior.