Revisiting the Relation Between Steroid Hormones and Unethicality in an Exploratory, Longitudinal Study With Female Participants
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Research on the relation between hormones and unethical behaviors and tendencies has provided mixed results, hindering the understanding of the potential biological regulation of unethical behaviors and tendencies. We conducted an exploratory, longitudinal study (N = 257 women) allowing to estimate relations between, on the one hand, steroid hormones (testosterone, cortisol, estradiol, and progesterone) and conception probability and, on the other hand, a broad variety of measures related to unethicality (self-reported personality variables, cheating in committed relationships, self-serving economic dishonesty in a behavioral task, namely, the mind game). Contrary to theoretical assumptions of and results from some previous studies, we find no consistent relation between hormones and unethical behavior or tendencies in the majority of analyses. Yet, some small, exploratory associations emerged that call for (preregistered) replications, before more firm conclusions can be made.
Original language | English |
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Journal | Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin |
ISSN | 0146-1672 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Accepted/In press - 2024 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was funded by grants from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation; project number 254142454 / GRK 2070) to J.S. as well as by the Carlsberg Foundation (CF16-0444) to I.Z.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.
- cheating, dishonesty, hormones, ovulatory cycle, unethical behaviors
Research areas
ID: 370283431