According to a University of Michigan study, estrogen appears to be the critical factor in what motivates women to be competitive—very similarly to how testosterone makes men aggressive.
U.S. biopsychologist Steven Stanton, working with U.S./German researcher Oliver Schultheiss (University of Michigan, currently on temporarily leave of absence at Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen, Germany), conducted the study involving mostly women in the age bracket of 20 to 29 years.
Stanton wanted to find out what effect, if any, did estrogen have in women with respect to their competitive nature.
During the experiment, the female subjects engaged in contests, for ten rounds, in which they competed against each other in computer tasks.
At the end of each round, each woman was told whether she won or lost the contest. Each woman’s reaction was observed and analyzed. In addition, saliva samples were taken to measure hormone levels.
The researchers had already discovered before this contest that women with higher levels of estrogen had higher motivations for power and competition.
After analyzing the results of the contest, the two researchers found that the winners showed higher levels of estrogen than their normal levels, but only if they showed a strong desire for power.
The researchers also found that these higher levels remained at those levels one day after the contests in these already driven women.
They also discovered that the strongest correlation between high levels of estrogen and high levels to be powerful and dominant were found in single women and women not taking oral contraceptives.
Those not desiring power and dominance had just the opposite results from the aggressive women. If they won, their estrogen levels went down. If they lost, estrogen levels went up.
The result of the study is now published in the journal Hormones and Behavior.
In the Telegraph.co.uk, Stanton stated, “In women, oestrogen [estrogen] appears to be the critical hormone for power motivation.” [Telegraph: “Oestrogen is the ‘fuel of power’]
Stanton added, “On top of that, it sets up very nice parallels with men and testosterone…. However, oestrogen is very behaviourally potent and is actually a close hormonal relative to testosterone. In female mammals, oestrogen has been tied to dominance, but there has been scant research examining the behavioural roles of oestrogen in women.”
Since few studies have been performed on women relating their levels of estrogen and characteristics of dominance and power, this study will help in further efforts to learn more on the subject.
Sources: Telegraph.co.uk
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