Ladies, if you think your boyfriend is congenitally unable to admit that he is wrong about directions/instructions/whether “The Leftovers” is any good, you are correct. Newly released research indicates that men who have high testosterone levels are more apt to be unable to yield their side of an argument.
(He: That’s not true.
She: Yes it is.
He: No it’s not!)
Unfortunately, gentlemen, there is no debating this: In a new study, researchers from Caltech, the Wharton School, Western University and ZRT Laboratory found that men with higher levels of testosterone tend to think they’re right more often than others — even when they’re wrong.
“What we found was the testosterone group was quicker to make snap judgments on brain teasers where your initial guess is usually wrong,” says Caltech’s Colin Camerer, a professor of behavioral economics. “The testosterone is either inhibiting the process of mentally checking your work or increasing the intuitive feeling that ‘I’m definitely right.'”
The researchers gave 243 men a testosterone patch or a placebo before giving them a set of math problems. The participants receiving testosterone scored “significantly lower” than the control group — making 20 percent more errors. The high-T group not only gave incorrect answers more quickly but also lingered over correct answers more than the control group.
The researchers concluded that it came down to confidence, which testosterone has previously been shown to increase. “If you’re more confident, you’ll feel like you’re right and will not have enough self-doubt to correct mistakes,” Camerer says.
If you think this is garbage science, you are probably male. And you are incorrect.
Some benefits of having high testosterone: an increase in sex drive, an improvement in self-image, less body fat and higher muscle mass.
One negative side effect: testicular shrinkage.
So, m’ladies, you might ultimately get the last laugh.
