The Myth of Testosterone

Songs used are from Housecat’s ‘A Quiet Night’

SOURCES

Sapolsky, R. M. (2017). Behave: the biology of humans at our best and worst. New York, New York, Penguin Press.

A.F. Dixson, J. Herbert,
Testosterone, aggressive behavior and dominance rank in captive adult male talapoin monkeys (miopithecus talapoin), Physiology & Behavior, Volume 18, Issue 3,1977

A.F. Dixson, J. Herbert,
Testosterone, aggressive behavior and dominance rank in captive adult male talapoin monkeys (miopithecus talapoin), Physiology & Behavior, Volume 18, Issue 3, 1977,

[CMZneu]

So basically testosterone acts like a motivator, making you want to play the game, whatever that may be at a given time.

[pointedmammal]

Pro tip, sleep improves everything in your life including testosterone, make sure you all get enough

[sandrost]

The best way I ever heard it summarized: "Testosterone makes effort feel good." That lines up with my own experience. I was at the very bottom of the range at one time, stress, crappy diet, terrible relationship, lack of sleep, etc. over the course of 5 years of correcting all of these things, regular bloodwork, addressing my insulin resistance and bringing up mineral deficiencies, I raised it almost 600 points. The difference in my life was night and day.

[ReikiTora]

They did a study with Mongolian gerbils that increased their testosterone, the gerbils just cuddled more. Study conducted by neuroscientists at Emory University.

[wordsayer]

"The problem is the frequency with which we reward aggression."

Such a good wrap-up line! Too often we are willing to turn a blind eye to undesirable tactics and methods as long as the people using them are on "our side" of an issue. But in doing so, we are not only rewarding those bad behaviors, but encouraging the "other side" to use the same tactics in order to "win". This turns into a feedback loop that sends our society into a downward spiral of ferocity and chaos.

[JREG]

SISSYphus55 once again tries to horde all the poon for himself by convincing you testosterone isn’t important while he sells you male skincare. Don’t fall for it!!

[hydroxyT]

once again we find that reducing human behaviour to a purely chemical phenomenon is naively simplistic and potentially harmful

[tiramisucocolands]

Can you do an episode on estrogen and the concept of femininity too? I think it would be really interesting to see the myths surrounding femininity too.

[bossgman]

As someone who has experimented with PEDs, testosterone really just heightens whatever qualities you normally have. If you already have a little confidence, you’ll have more confidence. If you’re a little aggressive, you’ll be more aggressive. You’ll have a higher drive to succeed, but something I’ve noticed for myself is a strong drop in empathy. I’m already kind of a shithead and test kind of extrapolates that.

[CallOfDutySniperzzz]

Testosteron reinforces existing behavioural patterns. Very informative

[Xibyth]

You know what hormone does correlate strongly with aggression, cortisol. Increased cortisol levels are detected in all hyper aggressive individuals be they male or female, when combined with high volitility social groups it nearly always leads to increased aggression.

[thisissophiaisabelle]

The animation may be unconventional, however we find this informative in more ways than one. We would look forward to more content similar to this on this channel. May God bless you all.

[nosiidda]

2:40 Vasopressin is more responsible for aggression than testosterone is in animals, this goes for people, too, along with the social factors you've laid out in this video. Good video, informing as always.

[Jskid]

Sapolsky is one of my favorite non-fiction writers. He can effortlessly sum up complex topics while keeping the reader entertained and intrigued without losing the quality and specificity of the information. A genuine Biology rockstar.

[xg]

I DONT know how welcome I am here, but I am female to male transsex, and I’ve been on it for 4 years. Before I went on hormones, I had horrible anger problems and aggression issues. After being on testosterone for a while, I am so much less aggressive and have less anger issues. This is just an anecdote. But testosterone made me much calmer, and less angry. This supersedes an initial notion society has that testosterone makes one violent. I would love in a fair, logical, and calm environment, love to share all of the personal anecdotes of transition and what they might mean about males and females. A lot of biological sex is from hormones, so taking cross sex hormones can drastically affect the brain.

I have personally lived on both sides of the fence, and I feel like my anecdotes could be helpful. There’s a lot of changes and differences between males and females, and transition has taught me hormones are a HUGE factor, bigger than most people realize.

[Manticorn]

When depressed, your mind will cling to what normally may make you depressed, and indicate that as the cause. Hormones of any kind do seem like an amplifier of how ever your cognition already functioned.
Since starting testosterone treatment, I seriously struggle to think of any way it's affected my mind, and it's been at least two years since. I can't even say with any confidence if my sex drive has changed. For whatever that anecdote may be worth, even if it's just interesting.

[benapgar]

Would be interesting to see similar video for estrogen. The way that our social contexts give inputs to our minds which give input to our bodies (which then give inputs back to the mind) is fascinating.

[theoheinrich]

i love sisyphus55 and their deconstruction of the assumptions made and proliferated in the manosphere

[ZelphTheWebmancer]

It would be great if you did a video like this for dopamine. Self help is filled to the brim with "dopamine detox" stuff and most don't seem to truly understand what dopamine does and how it has a complex functionally in the brain. It isn't just the "feel good juice".

[MrBritishNinja]

My favourite Sapolskyism on this topic is his suggestion that if you juiced a bunch of Buddhist monks on T, they'd run amok performing random acts of kindness trying to outdo each other