Testosterone is associated with behaviors such as aggression and sensation seeking as well as behavioral disorders such as impulse-control disorders including drug addiction and eating disorders, but to what degree and how testosterone affects cognition and decisionmaking remains unclear. Given the role of testosterone in mating and reproduction, Nave, Nadler, Zava, and Camerer (2017) suggested that the “facilitation of rapid intuitive responses by testosterone could be biologically adaptive in contexts in which reproductive success depends on instincts (e.g., during copulation) and when responding slowly might be especially costly (e.g., during physical challenges)” (p. 1404). This led them to hypothesize that testosterone biases decision-making away from reflective and deliberate responses and toward rapid and intuitive ones, thereby elucidating one potential mechanism by which testosterone might cause behaviors and behavioral disorders. To study their hypothesis, Nave et al. conducted a single experiment (N = 243) in which they randomly administered either exogenous testosterone or placebo to participants and then measured their performance on the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT), a simple three-item assessment of intuitive versus deliberate decision-making (Frederick, 2005). Each CRT item has an intuitive but incorrect response with which most people respond; discerning the correct response requires one to inhibit this intuitive response and to perform deliberate but easy calculations. For example, one item reads,

People differ in their mentalizing abilities. Though past research suggests that individual differences in exposure to prenatal testosterone may be able to explain why some people excel at mentalizing, while others struggle, meta-analyses yield a null relationship between 2D:4D ratio (a proxy for prenatal testosterone) and mentalizing. Importantly, however, past research has not examined the asymmetrical differences between the digit ratios on the right and left hands. In the current work, we test whether the difference between the digit ratios of the left and right hands may function as a better predictor of mentalizing than digit ratio alone. In Study 1, we begin by validating an online, self-report measure of 2D:4D ratio, providing test-retest reliability, convergent, and concurrent validity for our measure. In Study 2, we demonstrate that a) 2D:4D is quadratically related to asymmetry, b) asymmetry is negatively associated with mentalizing, and c) the relationship between asymmetry and mentalizing cannot be explained by the relationship between asymmetry and short-term memory. Taken together, our results paint a more nuanced picture of the relationship between digit ratio and mentalizing ability.

Stress often precedes the onset of mental health disorders and is linked to negative impacts on. physical health as well. Prior research indicates that testosterone levels are related to reduced stress reactivity in some cases but correlate with increased stress responses in other cases. To resolve these inconsistencies, we tested the causal influence of testosterone on stress reactivity to a social-evaluative stressor. Further, prior work has failed to consider status-relevant individual differences such as trait dominance that may modulate the influence of testosterone on responses to stressors. Participants (n = 120 males) were randomly assigned to receive exogenous testosterone or placebo (n = 60 testosterone treatment group) via topical gel prior to a well-validated social-evaluative stressor. Compared to placebo, testosterone significantly increased cortisol and negative affect in response to the stressor, especially for men high in trait dominance (95% confidence intervals did not contain zero). The findings suggest that the combination of high testosterone and exposure to status-relevant social stress may confer increased risk for stress-mediated disorders, particularly for individuals high in trait dominance.

Does the presence of irrelevant neuroscience information make explanations of psychological phenomena more appealing? Do fMRI pictures further increase that allure? To help answer these questions, 385 college students in four experiments read brief descriptions of psychological phenomena, each one accompanied by an explanation of varying quality (good vs. circular) and followed by superfluous information of various types. Ancillary measures assessed participants' analytical thinking, beliefs on dualism and free will, and admiration for different sciences. In Experiment 1, superfluous neuroscience information increased the judged quality of the argument for both good and bad explanations, whereas accompanying fMRI pictures had no impact above and beyond the neuroscience text, suggesting a bias that is conceptual rather than pictorial. Superfluous neuroscience information was more alluring than social science information (Experiment 2) and more alluring than information from prestigious "hard sciences" (Experiments 3 and 4). Analytical thinking did not protect against the neuroscience bias, nor did a belief in dualism or free will. We conclude that the "allure of neuroscience" bias is conceptual, specific to neuroscience, and not easily accounted for by the prestige of the discipline. It may stem from the lay belief that the brain is the best explanans for mental phenomena.

People often weight information about the self more heavily than information about other people when making social comparative judgments. One possible explanation for this egocentrism is that information about the self is more accessible than information about others. We examine this egocentrism in samples from the United States and Taiwan. Study 1 finds egocentrism in comparisons of the self with the average other person in both cultures. Study 2 measured reaction times, demonstrating that (a) information about the self is more accessible than information about the average other and (b) as the accessibility of self-information increases, so does the influence of that information. Study 3 replicates Study 2, using comparisons with a specific other person. Egocentrism occurred in both cultures, suggesting that heavier weighting of self-information occurs across the traditional East–West cultural divide.