Several studies have implicated testosterone in the modulation of altruistic behaviours instrumental to advancing social status. Independent studies have also shown that people tend to behave more altruistically when being watched (i.e. audience effect). To date, little is known about whether testosterone could modulate the audience effect. In the current study, we tested the effect of testosterone on altruistic behaviour using a donation task, wherein participants were asked to either accept or reject a monetary transfer to a charity organization accompanying a personal cost either in the presence or absence of an observer. We administered testosterone gel or placebo to healthy young men (n = 140) in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, mixed design. Our results showed that participants were more likely to accept the monetary transfer to the charity when being observed compared to when they completed the task alone. More importantly, this audience effect was amplified among people receiving testosterone versus placebo. Our findings suggest that testosterone administration increases the audience effect and further buttress the social status hypothesis, according to which testosterone promotes status-seeking behaviour in a context-dependent manner.

中文翻译：

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外源性睾酮增加健康男性的观众效应：社会地位假说的证据

几项研究表明睾丸激素参与调节有助于提高社会地位的利他行为。独立研究还表明，人们在被观看时往往表现得更加利他（即观众效应）。迄今为止，人们对睾酮是否可以调节观众效应知之甚少。在当前的研究中，我们使用捐赠任务测试了睾酮对利他行为的影响，其中要求参与者在观察者在场或不在场的情况下接受或拒绝伴随个人费用的慈善组织的货币转移。我们在双盲、安慰剂对照、混合设计中向健康年轻男性（n = 140）施用睾酮凝胶或安慰剂。我们的结果表明，与单独完成任务时相比，参与者在被观察时更有可能接受向慈善机构的货币转移。更重要的是，这种受众效应在接受睾酮与安慰剂的人群中被放大。我们的研究结果表明，睾酮管理增加了观众效应并进一步支持了社会地位假说，根据该假说，睾酮以依赖于上下文的方式促进寻求地位的行为。