Testosterone and Economic Risk Taking: A Review

Since precise forecasting of the future is not possible, most of life’s decisions are made with uncertain outcomes. One important facet of uncertainty that is of particular interest to decision scientists is risk—the choice between an option that is less rewarding but more certain and an option that is less certain, but potentially more rewarding. Recent developments in both neuroscience and behavioral endocrinology have helped to reveal the biological mechanisms that support decision-making involving economic risk, and consequently, potential factors associated with individual differences in risk taking. This review is dedicated to surveying recent developments that link the hormone testosterone to economic risk taking. Like neuroeconomics, endocrinological approaches may provide a potentially powerful framework from which to understand decision-making and may help to make sense of a number of well-documented behavioral anomalies involving economic risk. Specifically, we suggest that testosterone functions to modulate risky behaviors in ways that appear to be adaptive. Still, more work is needed to understand the nature of the relationship between testosterone and risk in both sexes.