Testosterone eliminates strategic prosocial behavior through impacting choice consistency in healthy males.

ABSTRACT: Humans are strategically more prosocial when their actions are being watched by others than when they act alone. Using a psychopharmacogenetic approach, we investigated the endocrinological and computational mechanisms of such audience-driven prosociality. One hundred and ninety-two male participants received either a single dose of testosterone (150 mg) or a placebo and performed a prosocial and self-benefitting reinforcement learning task. Crucially, the task was performed either in private or when being watched. Rival theories suggest that the hormone might either diminish or strengthen audience-dependent prosociality. We show that exogenous testosterone fully eliminated strategic, i.e., feigned, prosociality and thus decreased submission to audience expectations. We next performed rein

SUBMITTER: Kutlikova HH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10425362 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature