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Title: Testosterone not guilty
Author: Solidarity Federation
Date: Autumn 1998
Language: en
Topics: machismo, Direct Action Magazine, biology
Source: Retrieved on June 20, 2005 from https://web.archive.org/web/20050620082329/http://www.directa.force9.co.uk/archive/da8-features.htm
Notes: Published in Direct Action #8 — Autumn 1998.

Solidarity Federation

Testosterone not guilty

Aggressive loutish lads are often considered to be ‘testosterone

fuelled’. More testosterone means increased, unfocused aggression; less

of it means calm and controlled behaviour. Or does it?

The link between aggressive behaviour and the group of hormones commonly

referred to as testosterone is more tenuous and certainly more complex

than many scientists would have you think.

castration?

Undoubtedly, there does appear to be a link between aggression and

testosterone, and indeed, if the source of the latter is removed (say by

castration), levels of the former are often seen to drop. But increase

levels, and initially there is no observable change. In fact, it takes a

massive increase to more than double normal levels to effect any

noticeable response.

Most importantly, even when aggression levels are increased, it is not

random and flying out wildly, but channelled down the socially

prescribed paths that are available. In a hierarchical primate society,

a male primate with suddenly massively increased levels of testosterone

coursing through its body would not go on a random attack, it would

still treat higher ranking primates with due respect, but would become a

complete sod to lower ranking primates.

Basically, testosterone facilitates increased levels of brain activity,

but not that associated with aggressive behaviour. The cause of

aggression is not simply the presence of testosterone, but its

interaction with other biological processes, and particularly, the

social environment.

loutish females?

In spotted hyenas in Kenya, females apparently have a lot more of a

testosterone related hormone than males. Females are larger, with

greater musculature, and tend to be socially dominant. In a colony that

has been transplanted to California, the physically identical females

have similarly high levels of the hormone and are similarly larger and

more muscular than their male counterparts. However, the level of social

domination has been considerably delayed in the captive, controlled,

California colony. A large element of the learnt ‘wild’ behaviour was

lost.

social insecurity

There are clear signs, then, that there is a balance between the

environment and biology. Certainly, it is not a straightforward case of

biological determinism (the idea that ‘physical biology explains all’).

Dodgy scientists, money grabbers and politicians can be relied on to

bend the truth to suit their own perverse ends. But however much

‘socio-biology’, ‘neurology’ and ‘genetics’ research is done, there is

little chance of a fresh outbreak of the biological determinist picture

they try to paint.

In reality, biology (through the existence of life) provides potential,

and the environment shapes this potential. Aggressive behaviour is

shaped by a flawed social system, such as this one we live in. Creating

a better environment, physical and social, is the only way to

fundamentally alter this cycle of aggression. And by the way, you only

get research into ethically dubious areas when you live in an ethically

dubious society.