Infant Crying, Testosterone, and Paternal Provisions: A Positive Take on a Punishing Signal

Abstract

SYNOPSIS Author replies to commentaries on a paper reporting that different crying levels in infant simulators produce divergent testosterone (T) responses. Major points considered include that: human infant crying is similar to the crying of other mammalian young; increases in T following exposure to infant crying may mobilize paternal protection rather than paternal care; T changes in response to crying are embedded within a larger constellation of interdependent hormonal responses; more refined behavioral measures and more frequent hormone sampling would enhance researchers’ ability to detect individual differences in fathers’ caregiving behavior and make causal inferences. Implications for intervention and parent education are discussed.