Testosterone Mediates Eye Gaze Patterns Against Angry Faces
Christopher Philip
Testosterone motivates social dominance in humans in much the same ways that it does in other vertebrates: involuntarily, automatically, and unconsciously.
Testosterone is a vital hormone in animals and people. Through evolution, it has produced and mediated amazing behaviours. We know that testosterone is the dominant male sex hormone. It functions to produce more than just muscle mass, it also affects how animals and people behave and compete for social dominance.
The steroid is responsible for formation and maintenance of hierarchies from reptiles to mammals and almost everything in between. So tied is reproduction via status and power – the direct cause of which is testosterone. Without a constant supply of it, males are but a shadow of their former selves. Just compare a man in his 20’s to one in his 60’s. While there is more at play then a simple drop of testosterone, it does play a major function in maintaining his virility, his physic, and his drive. Any red-blooded male suffering from an unusual decline in testosterone will tell you, it’s vital to his sense of well-being.
In humans, who possesses a much expanded neocortex, testosterone functions to promote feelings of superiority, confidence, strength, anger and reduce anxiety. We might like to think that we have the free will to do what we may wish with the tools nature gives us, however, this may simply be a thought of convenience.
The Research
According to research by David Terburg and his colleagues, behaviours as insignificant as eye gaze may strongly be affected by doses of testosterone. The study, published in Psychological Science has linked testosterone to an increase in dominant staring into the eyes of threatening faces. According to the authors, “these findings reveal that testosterone motivates social dominance in humans in much the same ways that it does in other vertebrates: involuntarily, automatically, and unconsciously.”
In earlier research, they showed that salivary testosterone levels were coupled with attentional vigilance to angry faces and in another amygdala activity was boosted when viewing angry faces couple with boosting testosterone.
The current study involved female participants only. Previous study has shown that women on contraceptives work best for this type of study as the neurophysiological effects of administered testosterone positively correlates with women only. For the purposes of the research, half of the participants were given 0.5 mg of testosterone sublingually (under the tongue) and the other half, a placebo.
The researchers note that vaginal arousal to erotic stimuli peak 4 hours after administration of testosterone in this way as discovered by previous research. As such, the experiment began after waiting 4 hours.
The subjects where then presented angry, happy, and neutral faces of five men and five women.
The Results
“Here we show that testosterone administration in humans prolongs dominant staring into the eyes of threatening faces that are viewed outside of awareness, without affecting
consciously experienced feelings,” say the authors. They continue “these findings reveal that testosterone motivates social dominance in humans in much the same ways that it does in other vertebrates: involuntarily, automatically, and unconsciously.”
The results are significant because they show that testosterone circumvents our advanced wiring. Simply by administering testosterone, behaviour is changed in a measured and predictable way. We like to think that we are masters of our own, but how much is debatable.
It is interesting that nonverbal behaviour such as eye gazing and others are directly tied to the hormone testosterone. It is likely that estrogen also plays an important role in other nonverbal language, particularly in submissive behaviour. So while nonverbal behaviour influences affect, a persons’s affect also provide cues to their underlying physiology.
It would be safe to say, at the conclusion of this study, that persistent eye gaze into threatening faces is the result of higher than ordinary levels of testosterone.
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Resources
David Terburg; Henk Aarts and Jack van Honk. Testosterone Affects Gaze Aversion From Angry Faces Outside of Conscious Awareness. Psychological Science. 2019; 23 (5) 459-463.
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