No evidence for associations between men’s salivary testosterone and responses on the Intrasexual Competitiveness Scale

Abstract

Many previous studies have investigated relationships between men’s competitiveness and testosterone. For example, the extent of changes in men’s testosterone levels following a competitive task predicts the likelihood of them choosing to compete again. Recent work investigating whether individual differences in men’s testosterone levels predict individual differences in their competitiveness have produced mixed results. Consequently, we investigated whether men’s (N=59) scores on the Intrasexual Competitiveness Scale were related to either within-subject changes or between-subject differences in men’s testosterone levels. Men’s responses on the Intrasexual Competitiveness Scale did not appear to track within-subject changes in testosterone. By contrast with one recent study, men’s Intrasexual Competitiveness Scale also did not appear to be related to individual differences in testosterone. Thus, our results present no evidence for associations between men’s testosterone and their responses on the Intrasexual Competitiveness Scale.