Data_Sheet_1_Under the influence: exogenous testosterone influences men’s cross-sex perceptions of sexual interest.docx

The sexual misperception bias is a cognitive bias in which men tend to overestimate sexual interest from women, potentially shaped by evolutionary mating strategies. Testosterone, often linked to mating behaviors, might play a role in sustaining sexual overperceptions. To explore this possibility, we conducted a placebo-controlled study with 190 heterosexual men, administering either 11 mg of testosterone or a placebo. Participants interacted with an attractive female confederate, while naïve raters assessed the confederate’s affiliative behaviors. Our findings suggest that exogenous testosterone did not broadly impact sexual overperception. However, we found that affiliative behavior from the confederate was positively correlated with perceived sexual interest among testosterone-treated, but not placebo-treated men. In addition, we found that this effect among testosterone-treated men was contingent on their self-perceived attractiveness. Specifically, the confederate’s affiliative behaviors were positively correlated with perceived sexual interest, but only for testosterone-treated men with average or above average self-perceived attractiveness. Furthermore, our data revealed that men’s tendency to project their own short-term and long-term mating interests increases as a function of self-perceived attractiveness, and this coupling is enhanced by testosterone for long-term interest. Taken together, these results suggest that testosterone may potentiate existing biases, particularly when sexual motivation is high, and bias perceptions of friendly behavior when engaging in cross-sex mindreading. This study adds to the understanding of the neuroendocrine bases of social cognition, suggesting that testosterone can affect men’s perceptions of potential mates.

性误判偏差是一种认知偏差，男性倾向于高估女性对性的兴趣，这一现象可能受到进化性繁殖策略的影响。睾酮，常与繁殖行为相关联，可能在维持性过度感知中发挥作用。为了探讨这一可能性，我们进行了一项安慰剂对照研究，对190名异性恋男性进行了11毫克睾酮或安慰剂的给药。受试者与一位迷人的女性合作者进行互动，而不知情的研究者评估了合作者的亲和行为。我们的研究结果表明，外源性睾酮并未广泛影响性过度感知。然而，我们发现合作者的亲和行为与接受睾酮治疗的男性感知到的性兴趣呈正相关，但对于接受安慰剂治疗的男性则没有这种影响。此外，我们发现这种效应在接受睾酮治疗的男性中取决于他们自我感知的吸引力。具体而言，合作者的亲和行为与感知到的性兴趣呈正相关，但这种相关性仅限于自我感知吸引力平均或高于平均水平的睾酮治疗男性。此外，我们的数据还显示，男性将自己的短期和长期繁殖兴趣投射出去的倾向随着自我感知吸引力的增加而增加，并且这种耦合在长期兴趣方面由睾酮增强。综合这些结果，我们推测睾酮可能增强现有的偏见，尤其是在性动机较高时，并且在跨性别心理解读过程中对友好行为的偏见感知产生影响。这项研究丰富了我们对社会认知神经内分泌基础的理解，表明睾酮可以影响男性对潜在配偶的感知。