Single dose testosterone administration impairs cognitive reflection in men

In nonhumans, the sex steroid testosterone regulates reproductive behaviors such as fighting between males and mating. In humans, correlational studies have linked testosterone with aggression and disorders associated with poor impulse control, but the neuropsychological processes at work are poorly understood. Building on a dual-process framework, we propose a mechanism underlying testosterone’s behavioral effects in humans: reduction in cognitive reflection. In the largest study of behavioral effects of testosterone administration to date, 243 men received either testosterone or placebo and took the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT), which estimates the capacity to override incorrect intuitive judgments with deliberate correct responses. Testosterone administration reduced CRT scores. The effect remained after we controlled for age, mood, math skills, whether participants believed they had received the placebo or testosterone, and the effects of 14 additional hormones, and it held for each of the CRT questions in isolation. Our findings suggest a mechanism underlying testosterone’s diverse effects on humans’ judgments and decision making and provide novel, clear, and testable predictions

Reflecting on the Evidence: A Reply to Knight, McShane, et al. (2020)

Knight, McShane, et al. (2020) report three experiments on testosterone’s effect on the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT). The experiments were designed and executed independently of each other and of our previous work (Nave, Nadler, Zava & Camerer, 2017). We thank Knight, McShane, et al. for conducting these experiments and summarizing their results, and we agree that one experiment is obviously not enough for establishing an empirical fact. The individual experiments and their meta-analytic summary are consistent with both the null hypothesis and Nave et al.’s conclusions (see Table S6 in Knight, McShane, et al.’s Supplemental Material), and there is evidence for variation in effects across experiments. In what follows, we reflect on design differences among the experiments and the collective evidence that their data contain

Reflecting on the Evidence: A Reply to Knight, McShane, et al. (2020)

Knight, McShane, et al. (2020) report three experiments on testosterone’s effect on the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT). The experiments were designed and executed independently of each other and of our previous work (Nave, Nadler, Zava & Camerer, 2017). We thank Knight, McShane, et al. for conducting these experiments and summarizing their results, and we agree that one experiment is obviously not enough for establishing an empirical fact. The individual experiments and their meta-analytic summary are consistent with both the null hypothesis and Nave et al.’s conclusions (see Table S6 in Knight, McShane, et al.’s Supplemental Material), and there is evidence for variation in effects across experiments. In what follows, we reflect on design differences among the experiments and the collective evidence that their data contain

Examining the generalizability of research findings from archival data

This initiative examined systematically the extent to which a large set of archival research findings generalizes across contexts. We repeated the key analyses for 29 original strategic management effects in the same context (direct reproduction) as well as in 52 novel time periods and geographies; 45% of the reproductions returned results matching the original reports together with 55% of tests in different spans of years and 40% of tests in novel geographies. Some original findings were associated with multiple new tests. Reproducibility was the best predictor of generalizability—for the findings that proved directly reproducible, 84% emerged in other available time periods and 57% emerged in other geographies. Overall, only limited empirical evidence emerged for context sensitivity. In a forecasting survey, independent scientists were able to anticipate which effects would find support in tests in new samples

The Bull of Wall Street: Experimental Analysis of Testosterone and Asset Trading

Growing evidence shows that biological factors affect individual financial decisions that could be reflected in financial markets. Testosterone, a chemical messenger especially influential in male physiology, has been shown to affect economic decision making and is taken as a performance enhancer among some financial professionals. This is the first experimental study to test how testosterone causally affects trading and prices. We exogenously elevated testosterone in male traders and tested testosterone's effect both on their trading behavior in experimental asset markets and on the size and duration of asset price bubbles. Using both aggregated and individual trading data, we find that testosterone administration generated larger and longer-lasting bubbles by causing high bids and the slow incorporation of the asset's fundamental value