Does High Testosterone Mean Low Empathy?

Source: http://brainblogger.com/2017/05/16/high-testosterone-and-low-empathy/

Empathy is defined as the ability to understand the feelings, emotions, and perspective of another person.  Empathy is critical for healthy social interactions, and impairments in empathy contribute to disorders of social interaction such as autism and psychopathy.

Women score higher on tests of empathy than men, leading researchers to examine a potential role for the male sex hormone testosterone in controlling empathy.  However, more recent studies have begun to explore the “dual hormone” hypothesis, that posits that testosterone interacts with the stress hormone cortisol to regulate social behaviours such as empathy.

A 2010 study by Jack van Honk and colleagues investigated the effects of acute testosterone administration on cognitive empathy in female volunteers. The study participants were administered either a placebo or a 0.5 mg dose of <a href="http://brainblogger.com/…

Source: http://brainblogger.com/2017/05/16/high-testosterone-and-low-empathy/

Empathy is defined as the ability to understand the feelings, emotions, and perspective of another person.  Empathy is critical for healthy social interactions, and impairments in empathy contribute to disorders of social interaction such as autism and psychopathy.

Women score higher on tests of empathy than men, leading researchers to examine a potential role for the male sex hormone testosterone in controlling empathy.  However, more recent studies have begun to explore the “dual hormone” hypothesis, that posits that testosterone interacts with the stress hormone cortisol to regulate social behaviours such as empathy.

A 2010 study by Jack van Honk and colleagues investigated the effects of acute testosterone administration on cognitive empathy in female volunteers. The study participants were administered either a placebo or a 0.5 mg dose of <a href="http://brainblogger.com/…

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