Work Matters

Tag: testosterone

  • The Roar of Sports Car Engines: 100% of Women — But Only 50% of Men –Respond to a Maserati With Increased Testosterone Levels

    I put up what I thought was an amusing and not especially original post on Wednesday afternoon that described a study showing that men who drove a new Porsche — but not an old Camry — responded with increased testosterone levels.  It got picked up by something called Hacker News and was on the top of their list of hot items for hours (I don't really understand how this thing works). The result was that it drove 5000 or 6000 hits to my blog and generated 35 comments there. By now, after some four years of blogging, I have learned that it is impossible to know what will take off.  And although it is fun when it happens, I have learned that when I stick to what feels interesting and authentic to me, I have the most fun and learn the most.  But based on reactions to my two testosterone posts, this is clearly something people seem to be interested in and I confess the research on it intrigues and bewilders me.

    So, to add to my posts here and here, I have one more study about cars and T levels to add to the mix. Following a link that appeared in one of the Hacker news comments, there was a related study described over Telegraph.com in the UK, headlined Sound of a sports care engine arouses women.  Here is how the study is described "The 40 participants listened to the recordings of a Maserati, a Lamborghini
    and a Ferrari, along with a Volkswagon Polo, before having a saliva specimen
    collected."     I have much less information about the nuances of this research than the other two studies, but on the face of it, the evidence seems to be that women respond more strongly than men to the sound of cars and to different cars. Note this excerpt:

    The results found 100 per cent of female participants had a significant
    increase in testosterone secretion after listening to the Maserati, compared
    to only half for men.Men fared better at the sound of a Lamborghini, with 60 per cent showing a
    testosterone increase. Psychologist David Moxon, who conducted the study commissioned by motor
    insurer Hiscox, said: "We saw significant peaks, particularly in women."

    "The roar of a luxury car engine does cause a primeval physiological
    response." He added the sound of an average car engine actually led to a decreased level
    of testosterone.

    I promise this is my last post on T levels for a long time.  I just couldn't resist this one.

    P.S. Check out Ellie's comment. She raises excellent points about the legitimacy of this research. I am trying to contact the David Moxon to see if he can share the original data and research report with us, l hope he answers. Once again, to be clear, the other two testosterone studies were published in a top peer-reviewed journal, and while they are imperfect, they are carefully done, the authors are careful not to overstate claims, and they acknowledge flaws and alternative explanations for their findings. 

  • More on Testosterone Levels: Driving a Porsche vs. Toyota Camry

    A couple weeks back, I put up a post on Testosterone Levels, Top Dogs,and Collective Confidence, which described a study showing that groups enjoyed more collective confidence when the people with higher levels where at the top of the pecking order and those with lower levels are at the bottom (compared to "mismatched groups" where the top dogs had low levels and the underlings had high levels).  There were some extremely thoughtful comments on that post, including a comment that "T" levels, as researchers call them, are heavily influenced by situational factors. Well, to that point, it turns out that — as I learned from the always useful BPS Research Digest –  that this article was one of a set published in a special issue of Organizational Behavior and Decision Processes on "The Biological Basis of Business." I read through the table of contents for the issue, and came upon a study that just cracked me up on the effects of driving a Porsche vs. a Camry.

    It is called "The Effects of Conspicuous Consumption on Men's Testosterone Levels" and was conducted by Gad Saad and John Vongas of Concordia University.  Here is roughly what they did (I am focusing on the first of the two studies in the article). They had 39 young heterosexual men drive both "a 2006 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S Cabriolet estimated to be worth over $150,000" and a "a dilapidated 1990 Toyota Camry wagon having over 186,000 miles,"  each for an hour,split evenly between city and and highway driving.  They randomly assigned subjects to driving either the Porsche or Camry first.  They took a total of six  "T" samples from each young man at various stages on the process. Most crucial for our purposes are the changes in "T" that occurred after driving the Porsche vs. the Camry, but also relevant are the two "baseline" samples taken before and after the experience.

    The effect was that driving the Camry did not seem to lead in a significant change in T levels, but — no doubt to the delight of many people and perhaps the disgust of many others — the young guys who drove the Porsche experienced significant and substantial increases in T levels after driving the Porsche (in the final sample of 31 guys, 8 were excluded from the day analysis because their samples were tainted by excessive excessive blood in their mouths). 

    Here is the key table:

    Porsche vs. Camary

    I am not sure if these results are completely obvious and trivial or completely shocking and crucial.  I always had a sneaking suspicion that the "manly" feeling that comes from driving a sports car was nonsense promoted by car companies. But I guess it may have some truth.  Also, I want to commend the researchers for demonstrating a lot of creativity and for — despite the straight and serious academic writing — producing one of the most entertaining academic studies I have read in a long time. 

    P.S. Here is the citation: G. Saad, J.G. Vongas / Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 110 (2009) 80–92