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No relationship between testosterone and risk aversion: A meta-analytic review
(www.sciencedirect.com)
this post was submitted on 19 May 2026
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The "study" is pointless
They said "no one has studied this", searched old studies, and then said "no one has studied this".
Anyone that thinks that means there isn't a connection, don't know what "meta-analysis" means or the basic ways the scientific community speaks....
Which apparently is a lot of people on Lemmy because they just blindly upvoted it
Perhaps males are hardwired as a fetus by testosterone to take risk. Then as adults testosterone no longer has a role.
Prenatal testosterone has well studied effects but brain development isn't one of them.
It's equally possible that the default state is risk taking, and estrogen causes risk averse behavior.
Unlikely since all fetuses by default are female. In males, the hormone, androgen masculinizes the fetus.
Yeah, you're talking about prenatal testorone and that link has been proven:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2741240/
It's one of the things we know subconsciously, prenatal testorone also causes physical differences for the entire life, most notable a wider face width/height ratio.
And most people intrinsically distrust "narrow face" people because that low prenatal testorone also means they have less group cohesion. A wider faced person is more likely to blindly defend their in group no matter what. So when looking for group members, we want them in our group, because then they're blindly loyal to us.
Most people don't consciously understand it, but subconsciously learn the pattern thru personal experience. Currently the term is "rat faced" but it's prenatal testorone that's the cause.
Quick edit:
To be clear testorne levels still play a role, I'm just saying prenatal testorone has actually had studies done, while "active" levels for adults hasn't.
I think your reference shows that testosterone increase risk taking refuting the title of the post. I think active testosterone means that circulating testosterone increase risk taking which would include adults.
...
"Prenatal testorone" means what your exposed to before birth at the earliest stages of development.
It is not the same as "testorone" that is in your blood as an adult.
They're two completely different processes despite similar names.
I had an epiphany. I had a male cat which was neutered. Yet, he had low risk aversion. He would jump into the street gutter and go somewhere. One time he disappeared for 24 hours. I had a female cat which just stayed in the yard. This is evidence that males are already hardwired for low risk aversion before birth.
Male cats are also more inclined to wandering due to feline mating habits. The males typically get kicked out of their birth family upon reaching maturity to prevent incest, whereas the females lead and organize the clan. So the males need to wander till they find a family to join as adults.
The exact mechanisms of how this works aren't really relevant to a discussion about humans since we don't really operate the same way, at least not universally.
Yes, but wandering involves low risk aversion. This could be caused by males being hardwired by prenatal testosterone.
I'm not saying it couldn't, just pointing out the nurture side of the debate
Nurture cannot be involved since a mother cat takes care her male and female kittens equally.