Aging US males with multiple sources of emotional social support have low testosterone

Among species expressing bi-parental care, males' testosterone is often low when they cooperate with females to raise offspring. In humans, low testosterone men might have an advantage as nurturant partners and parents because they are less prone to anger and reactive aggression and are more em...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Hormones and behavior 2016-02, Vol.78, p.32-42
Main Authors: Gettler, Lee T., Oka, Rahul C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Aggression - psychology
Aging
Aging - blood
Cross-Sectional Studies
Emotions
Female
Humans
Interpersonal Relations
Male
Men
Middle Aged
Nutrition Surveys
Parenting - psychology
Prosocial
Psychobiology
Reproductive ecology
Reproductive physiology
Social Behavior
Social networks
Social Support
Spouses - psychology
Testosterone
Testosterone - blood
United States - epidemiology
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Summary:Among species expressing bi-parental care, males' testosterone is often low when they cooperate with females to raise offspring. In humans, low testosterone men might have an advantage as nurturant partners and parents because they are less prone to anger and reactive aggression and are more empathetic. However, humans engage in cooperative, supportive relationships beyond the nuclear family, and these prosocial capacities were likely critical to our evolutionary success. Despite the diversity of human prosociality, no prior study has tested whether men's testosterone is also reduced when they participate in emotionally supportive relationships, beyond partnering and parenting. Here, we draw on testosterone and emotional social support data that were collected from older men (n=371; mean: 61.2years of age) enrolled in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a US nationally-representative study. Men who reported receiving emotional support from two or more sources had lower testosterone than men reporting zero support (all p
ISSN:0018-506X
1095-6867
DOI:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2015.10.003