A new study has found that testosterone may heighten men’s sensitivity to social feedback, influencing how they perceive themselves in response to approval or disapproval. Published in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, the research suggests that testosterone does not simply boost or diminish self-esteem, but changes how strongly social feedback affects an individual's sense of self-worth.
The study focuses on what psychologists call "state self-esteem," a temporary, fluctuating sense of self-worth that responds to social interactions. This is different from "trait self-esteem," which reflects a person’s more stable, long-term self-assessment. Fluctuations in state self-esteem can have significant consequences, including links to anxiety, depression, and aggression. The findings could also help explain why men with lower self-esteem might be more vulnerable to mood disorders or antisocial behaviour.
Fluctuations in state self-esteem can have significant consequencesiStock
Researchers from several institutions, including the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China and the University of Zurich, carried out the double-blind, placebo-controlled study. They recruited 120 healthy men aged 18 to 26, who were randomly assigned to receive either a testosterone gel or a placebo. After applying the gel, participants waited three hours for hormone levels to rise before taking part in a social evaluation task.
Participants were led to believe that 184 strangers would review a personal profile they had submitted and then respond with either approval (thumbs-up), disapproval (thumbs-down), or no feedback. In reality, the feedback was pre-programmed. Participants predicted how likely each rater was to approve of them and, after each round, rated how they felt about themselves, providing a real-time measure of state self-esteem.
The results showed that testosterone influenced how men formed expectations of social feedback. Those who received testosterone were more optimistic when anticipating approval from positively biased raters but more pessimistic when faced with likely disapproval. In essence, testosterone sharpened their social radar, increasing sensitivity to both praise and criticism.
More notably, testosterone amplified the emotional effects of feedback. Positive feedback led to greater boosts in self-esteem, while negative feedback caused more pronounced declines, compared to the placebo group. These patterns were assessed using computational modelling that treated self-esteem changes as a learning process, based on feedback and prediction errors.
The model revealed that testosterone did not affect the basic rate at which participants updated their self-esteem but did increase the emotional weight given to feedback. In particular, it amplified attention to both expectations and the discrepancies between expected and actual outcomes. This suggests that testosterone enhances the brain’s responsiveness to social cues, intensifying the emotional highs and lows associated with acceptance and rejection.
The findings support the idea that self-esteem functions as a “sociometer,” reflecting how accepted or rejected a person feels in their social environment. Testosterone appears to tune this sociometer, making men more emotionally responsive to social evaluations.
Men with low self-esteem are more susceptible to mental health issuesiStock
These insights could have practical implications. For instance, men with low self-esteem are more susceptible to mental health issues, and testosterone therapy is sometimes used to alleviate mood symptoms. Combining hormone treatments with positive social environments or therapies that offer regular, affirming feedback might be more effective in supporting mental well-being.
However, the study had limitations. All participants were young men, so it is unclear whether similar effects would be observed in women or in older individuals. Moreover, the researchers did not measure participants' baseline testosterone levels, which could influence how individuals respond to hormonal changes.
Another limitation lies in the study's design. Although the social evaluation task aimed to replicate real-life interactions, participants were aware they were part of an experiment, which might have affected their responses. Still, the controlled setting allowed researchers to isolate and measure the psychological processes involved.
Social evaluation task aimed to replicate real-life interactionsiStock
Future research could explore how testosterone affects social learning and self-esteem in more naturalistic settings or in clinical populations, such as those with social anxiety or depression. Additional studies could also investigate the role of other hormones and types of feedback, such as comments from peers or authority figures.
The study, titled "Testosterone Administration Increases the Computational Impact of Social Evaluation on the Updating of State Self-Esteem," was authored by Jixin Long, Junsong Lu, Yang Hu, Philippe N. Tobler, and Yin Wu. It highlights the complex role testosterone plays in shaping self-esteem and emotional sensitivity, opening new paths for understanding the hormonal underpinnings of mental health.
