Men in committed, romantic relationships have lower testosterone

被引:160
作者
Burnham, TC [1 ]
Chapman, JF
Gray, PB
McIntyre, MH
Lipson, SF
Ellison, PT
机构
[1] Harvard Univ, Sch Business, Boston, MA 02163 USA
[2] Harvard Univ, Dept Anthropol, Boston, MA 02115 USA
关键词
testosterone; pair bond; marriage; male reproductive effort;
D O I
10.1016/S0018-506X(03)00125-9
中图分类号
B84 [心理学]; C [社会科学总论]; Q98 [人类学];
学科分类号
03 ; 0303 ; 030303 ; 04 ; 0402 ;
摘要
Variation in human male testosterone levels may reflect, and effect, differential behavioral allocation to mating and parenting effort. This proposition leads to the hypothesis that, among North American men, those involved in committed, romantic relationships will have lower testosterone levels than men not involved in such relationships. Our study is the first to examine whether being in such a relationship (rather than being married) is the meaningful predictor of male testosterone levels. To test this hypothesis, 122 male Harvard Business School students filled out a questionnaire and collected one saliva sample (from which testosterone level was measured). Results revealed that men in committed, romantic relationships had 21% lower testosterone levels than men not involved in such relationships. Furthermore. the testosterone levels of married men and unmarried men who were involved in committed, romantic relationships did not differ, suggesting that, at least for this sample, male pair bonding status is the more significant predictor of testosterone levels than is marital status. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
引用
收藏
页码:119 / 122
页数:4
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