Data from: Low second-to-fourth digit ratio predicts indiscriminate social suspicion, not improved trustworthiness detection

Testosterone administration appears to make individuals less trusting, and this effect has been interpreted as an adaptive adjustment of social suspicion, that improved the accuracy of trusting decisions. Here, we consider another possibility, namely that testosterone increases the subjective cost of being duped, decreasing the propensity to trust without improving the accuracy of trusting decisions. In line with this hypothesis, we show that second-to-fourth digit ratio (2D : 4D, a proxy for effects of testosterone in the foetus) correlates with the propensity to trust, but not with the accuracy of trusting decisions. Trust game players (n = 144) trusted less when they had lower 2D : 4D (high prenatal testosterone), but their ability to detect the strategy of other players was constant (and better than chance) across all levels of digit ratio. Our results suggest that early prenatal organizing effects of testosterone in the foetus might impair rather than boost economic outcomes, by promoting indiscriminate social suspicion.

睾酮给药会使个体的信任意愿降低，这一效应此前被解读为社交猜疑的适应性调整，可提升信任决策的准确性。本文我们考量了另一种可能性：睾酮会提升个体被欺骗的主观代价，从而降低信任倾向，但并未改善信任决策的准确性。基于这一假说，我们发现：第二指与第四指长度之比（2D:4D，即反映胎儿期睾酮暴露水平的替代指标）与个体的信任倾向显著相关，但与信任决策的准确性并无关联。144名信任博弈参与者中，指长比更低（即胎儿期睾酮水平更高）的个体信任意愿更低，但他们对其他参与者策略的辨识能力并未随指长比水平变化，且始终高于随机猜测水平。我们的研究结果表明，胎儿期睾酮的早期组织效应，或许会通过催生无差别社交猜疑，损害而非提升个体的经济决策表现。