01/14/2026
In a 2009 negotiation study, women who took testosterone behaved more fairly towards others with less conflicts. However, women who believed they took testosterone (but actually just had placebo) behaved more aggressively & unfairly.
Furthermore, another nail in the coffin of the pop-science theory of testosterone as the "anti-social hormone": a dose makes men more likely to cooperate with each other during strategic games. Testosterone is not simply the "anger" or "aggression" or "competition" hormone (and it only works this way in women when they falsely believe they’ve received a dose of the girl-boss juice, but actually haven’t).
Also makes me suspect that all of the gassing up women receive from social media, music, movies, commercials, tv, magazines and on and on has contributed to the overall air of bitchiness and inconsideration so prevalent in modern females.
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature08711