Testosterone: Submission or Dominance?

Testosterone and Social Hierarchy

The testosterone hormone is scientifically associated with competition, status seeking, and “dominance” rather than submission. Thus, as a general rule, high testosterone is expected to push an individual towards more dominant roles in the social hierarchy. As an exception, an interesting detail was found in a 2017 study conducted on a Japanese university rugby team with a strict hierarchy: high testosterone increased “strategic submission” among young men at the lowest ranks of the hierarchy, in order to maintain their position in the group and advance in the future. However, the same study showed that individuals with high testosterone at the upper ranks of the hierarchy, conversely, behaved much more authoritatively and dominantly.

Submission or Strategic Behavior?

The testosterone hormone does not make an individual “submissive” in character; it merely pushes the brain to behave strategically to gain status or maintain it within their social group. If the way to survive in the current environment is to follow the rules, the individual may temporarily submit, but will exhibit a dominant character when an opportunity arises. Testosterone is primarily associated with dominance and status seeking in social hierarchy. The submission observed in certain situations is not a permanent character trait, but a temporary and strategic behavior exhibited by individuals of lower status to rise in the hierarchy or to maintain their position within the system. When an individual gains status or opportunity, they revert to their primary tendency of dominant behaviors.

Current Hypotheses and Academic Studies

Various academic studies show that testosterone triggers strategic and even prosocial behaviors, rather than direct aggression or blind dominance, depending on the situation. In the scientific community, the old “aggression hypothesis” (the view that testosterone increases aggressiveness under all conditions) has largely been replaced by the “social status hypothesis.” According to this current hypothesis, testosterone directs the individual to gain or maintain status in their environment; this path may sometimes require generosity, sometimes fairness, and sometimes temporary submission.

Some prominent key studies are:
1. Eisenegger et al. (2010) – Nature: In this experiment conducted via the “Ultimatum Game,” individuals who received testosterone supplementation from external sources were found to offer much more “fair” and generous monetary proposals to the other party, contrary to classic expectations. In the game, if an unfair offer is made, the other party has the right to reject it, which leads to status/resource loss. Testosterone pushed the brain to “be strategically fair” to prevent this loss.
2. Dreher et al. (2016) – PNAS: This study proved that testosterone can lead to both prosocial (positive social) and antisocial (aggressive) status-enhancing behaviors. Subjects became aggressive when the way to gain status was to punish injustice; but when the way to gain status was to act generously (show magnanimity), under the influence of testosterone, they behaved much more giving and cooperative than usual.
3. Boksem et al. (2013) – Psychological Science: In this research using the “Trust Game,” it was found that testosterone increases the “principle of reciprocity” in interpersonal relationships. Individuals reciprocated more towards those who trusted them and transferred resources, in order to maintain their status as a “reliable partner.”

Dual-Hormone Hypothesis and the Role of Cortisol

There is a fundamental topic debated in the scientific world regarding the effects of testosterone on social behaviors. While some researchers argue that an individual’s natural (basal) testosterone level is sufficient to predict behaviors, another significant group (such as Mehta and Josephs) puts forward the “Dual-Hormone Hypothesis.” According to this view, for testosterone to create status seeking and dominance, low levels of the stress hormone cortisol are essential; if an individual is under stress and cortisol is high, these strategic effects of testosterone are blocked. Therefore, there is no complete scientific consensus that testosterone alone will create the same behavior in every individual.

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