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Edited by George A. Akerlof, University of California, Berkeley, CA, and approved February 17, 2009 (received for review December 15, 2008)
Abstract
Existing correlative evidence suggests that sex hormones may affect economic behavior such as risk taking and reciprocal fairness. To test this hypothesis we conducted a double-blind randomized study. Two-hundred healthy postmenopausal women aged 50–65 years were randomly allocated to 4 weeks of treatment with estrogen, testosterone, or placebo. At the end of the treatment period, the subjects participated in a series of economic experiments that measure altruism, reciprocal fairness, trust, trustworthiness, and risk attitudes. There was no significant effect of estrogen or testosterone on any of the studied behaviors.
Footnotes
- 1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: magnus.johannesson{at}hhs.se
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Author contributions: N.Z., L.K.-M., T.E., B.v.S., A.L.H., and M.J. designed research, performed research, analyzed data, and wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.
A randomized trial of the effect of estrogen and testosterone on economic behavior
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