Objective
Although it is widely assumed that men’s sexual desire and interest in casual sex (i.e., sociosexual orientation) are linked to steroid hormone levels, evidence for such associations is mixed.

Methods
We tested for both longitudinal and cross-sectional relationships between salivary testosterone, cortisol, reported sexual desire and sociosexuality in a sample of 61 young adult men, each of whom was tested weekly on up to five occasions.

Results
Longitudinal analyses showed no clear relationships between steroid hormones and self-reported sexual desire or sociosexual orientation. Cross-sectional analyses showed no significant associations between average hormone levels and self-reported sexual desire. However, some aspects of sociosexuality, most notably desire for casual sex, were related to men’s average hormone levels. Men with higher average testosterone reported greater desire for casual sex, but only if they also had relatively low average cortisol levels.

Conclusions
Our results support a Dual Hormone account of men’s sociosexuality, in which the combined effects of testosterone and cortisol predict the extent of men’s interest in casual sex. However, we did not detect compelling evidence for an association of within-subject hormone shifts and sexual desire or sociosexual orientation.



中文翻译：

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性欲和社会性取向与男性唾液类固醇激素有关吗？

目的
尽管人们普遍认为男性的性欲和对随意性行为（即社会性取向）的兴趣与类固醇激素水平有关，但这种关联的证据是混杂的。

方法
我们测试了 61 名年轻成年男性样本中唾液睾酮、皮质醇、报告的性欲和社会性行为之间的纵向和横断面关系，每个样本每周最多进行五次测试。

结果
纵向分析显示类固醇激素与自我报告的性欲或社会性取向之间没有明确的关系。横断面分析显示平均激素水平与自我报告的性欲之间没有显着关联。然而，社会性行为的某些方面，尤其是对随意性行为的渴望，与男性的平均激素水平有关。平均睾酮水平较高的男性报告对随意性行为的渴望更大，但前提是他们的平均皮质醇水平也相对较低。

结论
我们的结果支持对男性社会性行为的双激素解释，其中 结合 了睾酮和皮质醇的影响可以预测男性对随意性行为的兴趣程度。然而，我们没有发现令人信服的证据表明受试者体内激素变化与性欲或社会性取向之间存在关联。