Does he flirt? Blame it on testosterone

A team of Dutch and Spanish scientists say they have found evidence that the hormone testosterone plays a major role in male courtship behaviour with females. The team discovered that men with a raised level of testosterone in their systems showed greater interest in women.

Their findings have just been published in the scientific journal “Proceedings B” from Britain’s Royal Society and are evidence that the hormone can directly influence social interaction.

It is already known that testosterone helps regulate many organic processes in vertebrate animals such as male genital development or the production of sperm cells. Studies of birds and rats have also shown that testosterone raises receptiveness to sexual intercourse.

The team of scientists from the Universities of Groningen and Valencia decided to examine the hormone’s effect on men who interacted with unfamiliar women. They carried out a study that began by dividing 48 male students into pairs. The two men in each pair then competed with each other in a computer game in which their testosterone levels elevated.

Testosterone levels in the participants’ saliva was found to be on average one sixth higher than normal — independent of whether the participant had won or lost the game.

In the next stage the male participants spent five minutes alone with either a young man or a young woman. Cameras were used to record their reactions. The raised testosterone levels were not found to influence interaction between men but they did play a key role with women.

The higher the level of testosterone in the blood, the more the male participant showed interest in the female. The researchers discovered that the men asked more questions and spoke more about themselves, they smiled more often and made more eye contact when interacting with a woman.

The researchers believe these signals could be the first steps in the initiation of a romance with an unfamiliar woman. They think the hormone could play a significant role in whether an effort to find a potential partner will be successful or not.

On the other hand the team has not ruled out a different interpretation of their findings: it’s possible that playing a game only served to raise testosterone levels in those men who would have tended to flirt more with a potential partner anyway.

Source: DPA