Social cognition
Does testosterone make men misread a woman's interest?
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
A dose of testosterone did not make men overestimate a woman's sexual interest overall, but it made their judgments track her friendliness more closely, especially in men who rated themselves as attractive.
Study at a glance
- Design
- Human experiment — Double-blind single-dose intranasal testosterone vs placebo gel, followed later the same session by a 3-minute unscripted waiting-room encounter with a female confederate
- N
- N=190 · 190 heterosexual men analysed for perceived sexual interest; 175 for the sexual misperception bias score because the confederate's own ratings were missing for some sessions
- Population
- Healthy heterosexual men aged 18-40 recruited in Ontario, Canada, from a larger testosterone and decision-making study
- Outcome
- Sexual misperception bias (perceived minus the confederate's actual short-term interest) and total perceived sexual interest
Structured fields used in claim comparison tables when every cited study has a complete layer.
Key findings
Across the sample, men overestimated her interest compared with what she actually reported, and men with higher natural (basal) testosterone overestimated more; once basal testosterone was controlled, the bias disappeared. The testosterone dose did not change the size of the bias compared with placebo (a small, non-significant difference). However, only in the testosterone group did her friendliness predict how interested the men thought she was, and this link got stronger the more attractive the men rated themselves. Men's own interest in her and their self-rated attractiveness were the strongest predictors of perceived interest, consistent with men projecting their desire onto her.
Methodology
Men taking part in a larger lab study received either testosterone gel or a placebo gel in the nose, with neither participants nor researchers knowing which. Later in the same session they waited for 3 minutes in a room with an attractive female confederate who was told to be friendly and warm. Afterwards the men rated her short- and long-term sexual interest in them, their own interest in her, and their own attractiveness, while blind judges coded her friendly (affiliative) behaviour from video.
Limitations
The study was not designed to test sexual misperception; these analyses are exploratory and need confirmation. There was only one confederate, so the 'actual interest' benchmark reflects one woman's idiosyncratic judgments. The encounter happened well after dosing, after economic decision tasks, when testosterone levels were probably falling, so the context is artificial. Testosterone levels after dosing were not measured, and the key interaction effects come from many regression models, which raises the risk of chance findings.
How this study connects
Role on claims
Each row is a claim on a concept or method page where this paper supports, challenges, or qualifies the statement. Roles are hand-checked — not a model guess.
Not yet placed on a claim. This paper has study layers, but no concept page yet cites it as support, challenge, or qualifier.
Related papers in this topic
Same topic cluster — not a recommendation engine.