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Hormone Levels Are Women Unsocial at High Estrogen Levels?
Estrogen levels influence women's willingness to share, according to a recent study at Goethe University Frankfurt. The hormone fluctuations in the course of the menstrual cycle have, according to the scientists around first author Christine Anderl a significant influence on the social behavior of women. This also concerns the willingness to share own resources with strangers.
According to the scientists, the hormone fluctuations contribute to a woman's social behavior changing over the menstrual cycle. Previous studies have already revealed increased mood swings and irritability before the menstrual period, "but also the increased willingness to have sex around the time of the ice jump," according to the Goethe University. The current study shows that the willingness to share own resources also fluctuates with the hormone levels. For example, women are more willing to cooperate during and shortly after menstruation.
The social behavior of women suffers from high levels of estrogen. (Image: pathdoc / fotolia.com) Cooperative readiness of 400 women checked
The study was based on data from 400 German and US women who participated in two internet studies. Prerequisite for study participation was a natural menstrual cycle of women. They were therefore not allowed to use hormonal contraceptives, not pregnant and not yet in menopause. The scientists found women's willingness to cooperate on the one hand "during and shortly after menstruation (early follicular phase), when the concentration of the hormones estrogen and progesterone is low", "on the other hand" a few days after ovulation (middle luteal phase), where the estrogen and progesterone levels is particularly high ", so the announcement of the Goethe University. The hormone level was estimated on the basis of the cycle day.
During menstruation the readiness to divide increases
Using the proven psychological scale of "social value orientation," the researchers identified women's individual willingness to co-operate, asking the subjects to "fictionally divide money between themselves and another person they did not know." In both studies, women did Menstruation and shortly thereafter showed a significantly higher willingness to share than women did a few days after ovulation. "Numerous studies have shown that people who show a high willingness to share in this test are more likely to donate more money to a good cause in real life, to travel to work more often by train rather than by car, and in Negotiations are more willing to compromise than people with a less pronounced prosocial value orientation ", emphasizes Christine Anderl.
Impact on everyday life unclear
The researchers report that with increasing cycle-dependent levels of the "female" sex hormone estrogen, in purely statistical terms, women's readiness to divide has declined. However, the psychologists at the Goethe University can not conclusively conclude whether this connection is causal. "While we strongly believe that the variability of the readiness to divide over the cycle is a true and systematic effect, whether it is really caused by estrogen, as we suspect on the basis of the data, we still need to examine," so the conclusion of the first author. According to Prof. Sabine Windmann of the Institute of General Psychology 2 of the Goethe University, the current results, however, "match earlier findings from other research groups that could show that hormones such as oxytocin and the 'male' sex hormone testosterone also influence human cooperation." Further Studies should also clarify how strongly the cycle-related fluctuations in the willingness to cooperate affect the everyday lives of women and which areas of life are particularly affected. (Fp)