Cited by 630Neuroendocrine regulation and behaviorEvolutionary Psychology and Human BehaviorSocial Power and Status Dynamics

The role of testosterone in social interaction

Open access
Eisenegger, Christoph, Haushofer, Johannes, Fehr, Ernst·2011·Trends in Cognitive Sciences

Abstract

Although animal researchers established the role of testosterone as a 'social hormone' decades ago, the investigation of its causal influence on human social behaviors has only recently begun. Here, we review and discuss recent studies showing the causal effects of testosterone on social interactions in animals and humans, and outline the basic neurobiological mechanisms that might underlie these effects. Based on these recent findings, we argue that the role of testosterone in human social behavior might be best understood in terms of the search for, and maintenance of, social status.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.tics.2011.04.008

Cites

94 of 94 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Testosterone has been proposed to facilitate socioemotional mechanisms that enhance an individual's ability to achieve and maintain social dominance.

    “Testosterone has been proposed to facilitate socioemotional mechanisms that enhance an individual’s ability to achieve and maintain social dominance [36].”
  • Elevated testosterone levels are associated with increased motivational drive, reduced fearfulness, and enhanced stress resilience.

    “Specifically, elevated testosterone levels are associated with increased motivational drive, reduced fearfulness, and enhanced stress resilience [36,67].”

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Eisenegger, C., Haushofer, J., & Fehr, E.
Affiliations
  • University of Cambridge (GB)
  • University of Zurich (CH)
Corresponding author
  • Eisenegger, Christoph
  • Fehr, Ernst
Venue
Trends in Cognitive Sciences
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2011-06
Volume
15
Issue
6
Pages
263-271
ISSN
1364-6613 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2097402887
Cited by
630
References
94
Citations by year
2026: 18 · 2025: 25 · 2024: 24 · 2023: 40 · 2022: 46 · 2021: 47 · 2020: 56 · 2019: 55 · 2018: 60 · 2017: 46 · 2016: 51 · 2015: 48 · 2014: 41 · 2013: 30 · 2012: 33
FWCI
4.78
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Trends in Cognitive Sciences (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Archive ouverte UNIGE (University of Geneva) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
  • Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (acceptedVersion, other-oa)
  • Archive ouverte UNIGE (University of Geneva) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich)
Funders
  • National Science Foundation
  • Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung (131154)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social Power and Status Dynamics
Keywords
testosterone, social behavior, social status, social dominance, neurobiology of social behavior, social interaction
MeSH terms
Animals, Brain, Brain Mapping, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Motivation, Reward, Testosterone

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review