title: Collective hormonal profiles predict group performance.
abstract: Prior research has shown that an individual's hormonal profile can influence the individual's social standing within a group. We introduce a different construct-a collective hormonal profile-which describes a group's hormonal make-up. We test whether a group's collective hormonal profile is related to its performance. Analysis of 370 individuals randomly assigned to work in 74 groups of three to six individuals revealed that group-level concentrations of testosterone and cortisol interact to predict a group's standing across groups. Groups with a collective hormonal profile characterized by high testosterone and low cortisol exhibited the highest performance. These collective hormonal level results remained reliable when controlling for personality traits and group-level variability in hormones. These findings support the hypothesis that groups with a biological propensity toward status pursuit (high testosterone) coupled with reduced stress-axis activity (low cortisol) engage in profit-maximizing decision-making. The current work extends the dual-hormone hypothesis to the collective level and provides a neurobiological perspective on the factors that determine who rises to the top across, not just within, social hierarchies.
authors.affiliation: Columbia Business School, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027; makinola@columbia.edu.
authors.forename: Modupe
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Akinola
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada ON M5S;
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Page-Gould
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403.
authors.forename: Pranjal H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Mehta
authors.affiliation: Columbia Business School, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027;
authors.forename: Jackson G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Lu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000378:metabolism / Q000523:psychology; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006126:Group Processes; D006608:Hierarchy, Social; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation / Q000502:physiology*; D012463:Saliva / Q000737:chemistry; D012930:Social Dominance; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D013739:Testosterone / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D013739:Testosterone; D006854:Hydrocortisone
keywords: cortisol; groups; performance; status; testosterone