title: Interest in Babies Negatively Predicts Testosterone Responses to Sexual Visual Stimuli Among Heterosexual Young Men.
abstract: Men's testosterone may be an important physiological mechanism mediating motivational and behavioral aspects of the mating/parenting trade-off not only over time but also in terms of stable differences between mating-oriented and parenting-oriented individuals. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that self-reported interest in babies is inversely related to testosterone reactivity to cues of short-term mating among heterosexual young men. Among 100 participants, interest in babies was related to a slow life-history strategy, as assessed by the Mini-K questionnaire, and negatively related to testosterone responses to an erotic video. Interest in babies was not associated with baseline testosterone levels or with testosterone reactivity to nonsexual social stimuli. These results provide the first evidence that differential testosterone reactivity to sexual stimuli may be an important aspect of individual differences in life-history strategies among human males.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Wayne State University.
authors.forename: Samuele
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zilioli
authors.affiliation: Institute for Mind and Biology, The University of Chicago.
authors.forename: Davide
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ponzi
authors.affiliation: Institute for Mind and Biology, The University of Chicago.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Henry
authors.affiliation: Institute for Mind and Biology, The University of Chicago.
authors.forename: Konrad
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kubicki
authors.affiliation: Institute for Mind and Biology, The University of Chicago.
authors.forename: Nora
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nickels
authors.affiliation: Institute for Mind and Biology, The University of Chicago.
authors.forename: M Claire
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.affiliation: Institute for Mind and Biology, The University of Chicago dario@uchicago.edu.
authors.forename: Dario
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Maestripieri
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D004882:Erotica / Q000523:psychology*; D020010:Heterosexuality / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008571:Men / Q000523:psychology*; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012463:Saliva / Q000737:chemistry; D057566:Self Report; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D013739:Testosterone / Q000378:metabolism*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D013739:Testosterone
keywords: interest in babies; life-history theory; mating/parenting trade-off; sexual stimuli; testosterone reactivity