Testosterone dynamics and psychopathic personality traits independently predict antagonistic behavior towards the perceived loser of a competitive interaction

Exogenous Testosterone Rapidly Increases Aggressive Behavior in Dominant and Impulsive Men

“…However, a growing body of work indicates that acute changes in T concentrations within the context of social provocation and/or competition are positively correlated with aggressive and antagonistic behavior in men (13)(14)(15)(16). Our results build upon correlational and experimental work suggesting that individual differences in trait dominance influence the extent to which T modulates human dominance behavior.…”

“…Other research in male cichlid fish indicates that winning a competition increases one's probability of winning subsequent interactions-an effect that is eliminated when blocking the competition-induced rise in T (10). Complementing this work are studies in humans demonstrating that an acute rise in T concentrations during competition (but not baseline levels of T) predicts increased competitive motivation (11)(12) and aggressive behavior (13)(14)(15)(16). These findings are consistent with theoretical models suggesting that changes in T may serve to adaptively regulate ongoing and/or future dominance-related behavior (4,17).…”

Trait Anxiety Moderates the Relationship Between Testosterone Responses to Competition and Aggressive Behavior

“…Consistent with this idea, a growing number of studies have found that T responses to competitive interactions predict subsequent aggression (Carré et al 2009(Carré et al , 2013(Carré et al , 2014a and antagonistic behavior (Geniole et al 2013). These correlational studies provide support for the idea that acute changes in T during competition may serve to fine-tune dominance-related behavior (Mazur 1985).…”

“…Functional interpretations of such findings suggest that acute changes in T within the context of competition may serve to fine-tune ongoing and/or future social behavior. Indeed, several recent studies support such a functional role of competition-induced T dynamics (Mehta and Josephs 2006;Carré and McCormick 2008;Carré et al 2009Carré et al , 2013Carré et al , 2014aGeniole et al 2013;Apicella et al 2014;Zilioli and Watson 2014). Nevertheless, not all people who demonstrate a rise in T during competition exhibit heightened aggressive behavior in subsequent interactions, and it is likely that there are several factors that moderate the relationship between context dependent changes in T and aggressive behavior.…”

Testosterone and human behavior: the role of individual and contextual variables

“…Despite these findings, others have reported mixed results -some finding no moderating effects of cortisol [46,47], and others that testosterone positively predicts aggression and aggressionrelated phenotypes (e.g., psychopathic traits), but only among those with high cortisol concentrations [48,49]. Consistent with the literature reviewed above, recent evidence suggests that trait dominance influences the degree to which testosterone and cortisol interact to predict human aggression.…”