Endocrine and aggressive responses to competition are moderated by contest outcome, gender, individual versus team competition, and implicit motives

• Published in: PloS one 2017-07, Vol.12 (7), p.e0181610-e0181610
• Main Authors: Oxford, Jon K, Tiedtke, Johanna M, Ossmann, Anna, Özbe, Dominik, Schultheiss, Oliver C
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 17β-Estradiol; Affect; Aggression; Aggressive behavior; Aggressiveness; Behavior; Biology and Life Sciences; Competition; Competition (Biology); Competitive Behavior - physiology; Cortisol; Dosage and administration; Endocrinology; Estradiol; Estradiol - metabolism; Female; Games, Experimental; Gender; Gender differences; Genetic aspects; Hormones; Humans; Hydrocortisone; Hydrocortisone - metabolism; Hypotheses; Male; Men; Motivation; Power, Psychological; Progesterone; Progesterone - metabolism; Psychiatry; Saliva; Saliva - metabolism; Sex (Biology); Sex Distribution; Sex hormones; Social Sciences; Teams; Testosterone; Testosterone - metabolism; Women; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0181610

This study examined hormonal responses to competition in relation to gender, social context, and implicit motives. Participants (N = 326) were randomly assigned to win or lose in a 10-round, virtual face-to-face competition, in same-sex individual- and team-competition contexts. Saliva samples, taken before and twice after the competition, were assayed for testosterone (T), estradiol (E), progesterone (P), and cortisol (C). Implicit needs for power (nPower) and affiliation (nAffiliation) were assessed with a picture-story exercise before the competition. Aggression was measured via the volume at which participants set noise blasts for their opponents. Men competing individually and women competing as teams showed similar T increases after winning. C was differentially associated with outcome in the team matches, with higher post-match cortisol for winning women, and an opposite effect for male teams. Analyses including implicit motives indicated that situational variables interacted with motivational needs in shaping hormonal responses to competition: in naturally cycling women, nPower predicted T increases after winning and T and E decreases after losing. In men, nPower predicted T increases after losing and decreases after winning. In male teams, nPower predicted C increases after losing, but not after winning, whereas in individual competitions, nPower was a general negative predictor of C changes in women. nAffiliation predicted P increases for women competing as teams, and P decreases for women competing individually. Aggression was higher in men, losers, and teams than in women, winners, and individuals. High aggression was associated with high baseline C in women competing individually and with low baseline C and C decreases in women competing as teams and in men generally. Our findings suggest that while situational and gender factors play a role in hormonal responses to competition, they also depend on their interplay with motivational factors. They also suggest that while aggression is strongly affected by situational factors in the context of a competition, it has no direct association with motivational and hormonal correlates of dominance (nPower, T, E) and instead is associated with (mostly) low levels of C.