Scientists have refuted the link between testosterone and risk-taking

A meta-analysis of 52 studies involving more than 17,000 people did not confirm a long-standing hypothesis: testosterone levels do not explain why some people are more willing to take risks than others. This was reported on May 12 in the journal Medical Xpress.

The idea that men risk more than women precisely because they have higher testosterone levels has long been entrenched in the popular consciousness. A new meta-analysis destroys this assumption. Even though men on average are actually more willing to take risks, the hormone itself has nothing to do with this difference.

Testosterone in these 52 studies was measured in different ways: through blood and saliva tests or through the administration of the hormone from the outside. Risky behavior was assessed using gambling, lottery tasks, and personality questionnaires.

Experts named psychological and medical reasons for the decrease in libido in women

The weak connection between the hormone and the willingness to take risks was revealed only in lottery-type tasks. No stable pattern has been found in other formats. It is significant that studies in which testosterone was measured directly — by blood or saliva tests — did not show a link with risk. But working with indirect methods — for example, the ratio of finger length as a marker of prenatal hormone exposure — sometimes such a relationship was recorded.

The authors concluded that risky behavior is too complex to be explained by a single hormone. It is influenced by the specific situation, the psychological characteristics of a person and the social context. According to scientists, only studies with large samples, standardized hormone measurement methods, and uniform risk tests will help advance understanding of this topic.

Gynecologist-endocrinologist of the Polyclinic network of clinics.<url>" Sandra Rshtuni told Izvestia that a decrease in testosterone levels in men after the age of 30 does not always lead to a decrease in sexual desire, since libido is formed under the influence of many factors.