Prior research on testosterone has focused on delinquent and antisocial behavior. Little attention has been directed toward prosocial behavior, or toward variables that mediate and moderate the effects of testosterone. The proposed research will cover four areas. First, it will examine physical individual difference characteristics as they are correlated with testosterone level. Second, it will examine cognitive factors that are correlated with differences in testosterone level, using neuropsychological tests and pupillary response measures. Third, it will examine behavioral differences between groups of high and low testosterone individuals, focusing upon success in select occupations. And fourth, it will examine the role of testosterone in an assertive, out-going, and risky kind of behavior called "heroic altruism." The work is guided by an evolutionary model, which holds that testosterone is selected to produce strength, persistence, focused attention, a combative frame of mind, a preference for action over thought, a confident and intimidating, manner, and sexual activity. These characteristics sum together to define dominance, which leads to success in agonistic encounters and to reproductive success. Personal experiences and social control forces moderate the effects of testosterone, allowing it to lead to delinquency, restraining it, or converting it into prosocial behavior. Many high testosterone people are aggressive and violent, but some devote their lives to helping others. To understand how this can be, we need to look at the most basic effects of testosterone. Testosterone brings strength, activity, a willingness to fight, and a confident manner. These can be used to hurt other people or to help them. The present project will gather detailed information on the personality and ways of thinking of high testosterone people. It will also study how family values and community pressures lead these people to use testosterone in good or bad ways. The results should help us understand what causes violence and how we can contol and limit it.
