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The answer takes us back to the influence of the pecking order on
testosterone. In studies of combative monkeys and of competing
college wrestling teams, a simple fact has emerged.170 Testosterone
levels go up in the winners and down in the losers.
Testosterone makes winners restless, confident, and aggres-
sive.171 The steroids taken by athletes, for example, are a synthetic
variation of natural testosterone. These drugs can induce a boldness
that borders on the insane. Psychiatrists Harrison G. Pope Jr. and
David L. Katz (of McLean Hospital and the Harvard Medical School)
interviewed 41 steroid-using body builders and found, among other
things, that one of these athletes was convinced he could jump from a
third-floor window without harm. And another had bought two
expensive sports cars, then cockily driven them at 40 miles per hour
into a tree while a friend had videotaped the feat.172
Testosterone is the very elixir of feistiness. Inject a young rooster
with this remarkable hormone and the bird struts away to look for a
fight. What's more, he usually wins the battle, and moves up in social
stature.173 One reason may be indicated by the work of Turkish
researcher Una Tan, who showed that testosterone can actually
increase physical prowess.174
According to Edward O. Wilson, even "hens given small doses of
testosterone become more aggressive and move up in rank within the
dominance hierarchies of the flock."175 In fact, injecting a few hens with
testosterone propionate is a good way to trigger a literal barnyard
revolt.176
A social group that has just had a stroke of good fortune is filled
with men and women who've won in a big way. The leaders are on a
testosterone high! No wonder the Mongols, flush with fresh
prosperity, thundered across the Asian plains in search of battle. They
were bursting with the hormones of aggression.
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