Re: Just say "No" to violence against testosterone

HypocracyAbounds wrote:
Say NO to violence against Testosterone!

Contemporary research shows that testosterone does not cause
aggression. At most testosterone can exaggerate the aggression that is
already there.

The implications of this ground-breaking research are major,
indicating that all previous social policies based on the idea of the
'biologically programmed to be more aggressive male' must be revoked
and looked at afresh. (the current ads for violence against women
being case in point).

The following is by a leading biological scientist:


THE TROUBLE WITH TESTOSTERONE by Robert M. Sapolsky

"Social conditioning can more than make up for the hormone"

What evidence links testosterone with aggression? Some pretty obvious
stuff. Males tend to have higher testosterone levels in their
circulation than do females (one wild exception will be discussed
later) and tend to be more aggressive. Times of life when males are
swimming in testosterone (for example, after reaching puberty)
correspond to when aggression peaks. Among numerous species, testes
are mothballed most of the year, kicking into action and pouring out
testosterone only during a very circumscribed mating season- precisely
the time when male aggression soars.
Impressive, but these are only correlative data, testosterone
repeatedly being on the scene with no alibi when some aggression has
occurred. The proof comes with the knife, the performance of what is
euphemistically known as a "subtraction" experiment. Remove the source
of testosterone in species after species and levels of aggression
typically plummet. Reinstate normal testosterone levels afterward with
injections of synthetic testosterone, and aggression returns.
To an endocrinologist, the subtraction and replacement paradigm
represents pretty damning proof: this hormone is involved. "Normal
testosterone levels appear to be a prerequisite for normative levels
of aggressive behavior" is the sort of catchy, hummable phrase that
the textbooks would use. That probably explains why you shouldn't mess
with a bull moose during rutting season. But that's not why a lot of
people want to understand this sliver of science. Does the action of
this hormone tell us anything about individual differences in levels
of aggression, anything about why some males, some human males, are
exceptionally violent? Among an array of males -human or otherwise-
are the highest testosterone levels found in the most aggressive
individuals?
Generate some extreme differences and that is precisely what you see.
Castrate some of the well-paid study subjects, inject others with
enough testosterone to quadruple the normal human levels, and the high-
testosterone males are overwhelmingly likely to be the more aggressive
ones. However, that doesn't tell us much about the real world. Now do
something more subtle by studying the normative variability in
testosterone -in other words, don't manipulate anything, just see what
everyone's natural levels are like- and high levels of testosterone
and high levels of aggression still tend to go together. This would
seem to seal the case -interindividual differences in levels of
aggression among normal individuals are probably driven by differences
in levels of testosterone. But this turns out to be wrong.
Okay, suppose you note a correlation between levels of aggression and
levels of testosterone among these normal males. This could be (a)
testosterone elevates aggression; (b) aggression elevates testosterone
secretion; (c) neither causes the other. There's a huge bias to assume
option a, while b is the answer!
Which is exactly what I've been saying for nearly two decades.

This is why guys get turned on when their women get angry. It totally pisses off the girls to be told I love you when you are angry; or You're beautiful when you're angry. But it makes perfect sense in the male brain.

D.




--
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Women have spent the last
30 years proving that men
have been right for the
last 30 centuries.
=======================
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