Dr Helen: "Testosterone is why we don't live in caves."

TracyMorganFreeman · 2012-03-19T19:23:04+00:00

In this study, people performed their task more poorly under the influence of testosterone

What kind of task? When did every task require cooperation? There's this thing called competition: it's pretty freaking sweet. It drives innovation, and it drives evolution.

matt_512 · 2012-03-20T03:47:29+00:00

Fascinating, TheAtlantic! You mean to say that creating hormone imbalances to sub-optimal levels results in decreased performance? Who would have guessed!

OK, sarcasm aside, men and women are designed to run on different levels of testosterone. Imagine a study that gave men estrogen and then said, "Well, men become emotionally unbalanced when given too much estrogen, imagine how bad it must be for women!"

Men become demotivated or depressed when testosterone drops too low. They become prone to mood swings and emotional issues when estrogen is too high. These are well-known facts. It's preposterous to say that men and women react the same way to hormones.

The article that was linked in the reddit submission is total shit. Edit: The article linked in the link. The one from TheAtlantic.

Sir_George · 2012-03-19T21:08:02+00:00

I hate it when academics try to center a vast area of knowledge (history, science, philosophy, etc.) on just a single specific subject just so they can get attention. This doctorate is obviously lacking knowledge in many areas if she thinks that testosterone alone is responsible for this.

ThighPubes · 2012-03-20T06:11:17+00:00

I'm wondering if anyone thought to consider that the entire male endocrine system has evolved to cope with higher testosterone levels. Men produce testosterone antagonist hormones which target testosterone production directly, the same antagonist hormones in women, only target estrogen production.

I'm not how you can reach any valid conclusions regarding behavioral differences, by simply increasing testosterone levels in women.

iongantas · 2012-03-20T02:06:59+00:00

As if all other mammals didn't also make use of testosterone.

Demonspawn · 2012-03-19T18:43:55+00:00

Loved this comment:

“Overly Sure, Unwilling to Listen to Anyone … women, this is your process-orientation on testosterone.”

Women tend to be process-oriented, men tend to be goal-oriented.

When one is goal-oriented, testosterone harnesses or channels the determination and drive to reach a goal, and when the goal is bigger than one individual can achieve, one is determined to get the team over the goal line.

That’s not to say that there aren’t goal-oriented women or process-oriented men, but generally men excel at goal-oriented team efforts whereas women “excel” at process-oriented team efforts (that would be talking through and sharing their feelings and issues while the project suffers).

GeorgeOlduvai · 2012-03-20T08:15:21+00:00

Testosterone is why we don’t live in caves. Next time you’re driving a machine that runs on explosions across a thousand tons of concrete arching gracefully through the sky, and you miraculously don’t die–that’s testosterone.

Loved this.

Title	Dr Helen: "Testosterone is why we don't live in caves."
Author	EvilPundit
Upvotes	47
Comments	21
Date	March 19, 2012 6:29 PM UTC (14 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/r3s4m/dr_helen_testosterone_is_why_we_dont_live_in_caves/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/dr-helen-testosterone-is-why-we-dont-live-in-caves.1025634 https://theredarchive.com/post/1025634

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