A new study shows that there is a circuit in the brain that causes the testosterone hormone to cause aggression in men.
When male red-breasted birds enter the breeding season, the level of testosterone in their body increases. For this reason, they are very violent and love their profession. Testosterone has almost the same effects on young men.
Of course, not all psychologists agree with this conclusion. Psychology professors point out that although men with low testosterone levels tend to have lower levels of violence and libido, men with high testosterone levels may not be very violent or lustful.
Why do we think that animals are controlled by their hormones, but we humans are not? The reason is that human behavior is regulated and adjusted by his cognitive processes. Logic cools the blood and makes us accept responsibility for our actions. This is one of the oldest philosophical formulas that René Descartes stated. However, even Descartes did not believe that a rational soul always acts under the command of its logic, and many times humans are also guided by their instincts.
Part of the evidence that human behavior is partly driven by their hormones is limited to correlations, which are not the same as causation. At least one study has shown that elevated testosterone in a small population of men has increased violence. Young men who use anabolic steroids—which are a combination of testosterone—are much more likely to commit violent crimes. These findings generally show that high levels of testosterone in some men can cause violence.
Peak criminal behavior and testosterone production occur at roughly the same age. After marriage, compared to unmarried men of the same age, men face a decrease in testosterone production and criminal behavior.
Marriage seems to have a positive effect on men because it lowers their testosterone levels. Of course, no researcher will be able to do a complete experiment by randomly forcing some men to marry and keep some single.
The next interesting point is a natural experiment. When men get divorced and start dating again, their testosterone levels rise again, just like a red-breasted bird entering breeding season.
Their commission of criminal offenses also increases. This is partly related to the change in their lifestyle, spending more time outside the house until late, which makes them contact single women. Increasing alcohol consumption is also one of the complicating factors that makes judgment difficult.
The relationship between testosterone and violent crime is just as interesting as the relationship between testosterone and violence with the placenta in redbreasts and other male animals. In fact, it can be said that most crimes occur due to fertility competition (for example, violence between men and murder, domestic violence).
There is also very interesting evidence available on the relationship between testosterone and precociousness in men. Men’s sexual desire is at its highest in early youth; At the same time, testosterone production in men’s body is at its highest level. New research shows that the level of testosterone in men increases when they are exposed to beautiful women and engage them in sexual relations.
Of course, men are not like male red-breasted men, and violent crime cannot be studied without examining social differences (such as the ratio of men to women), situational factors (such as the location of the crime), and behavioral problems (such as why someone pushes someone while standing in line. gives) understood. However, the relationship between violence and testosterone has many similarities between vertebrate species, of which humans and redbreasts are a part. The situation is the same with sexual motives. Those who ignore testosterone in the analysis and analysis of men’s violence and sexuality, will never be able to analyze and understand this phenomenon with its true complexity that requires comparison with other species.
Of course, by saying that hormones play an important role in human behavior, including violent crimes, we revive the old belief that testosterone is an excuse for antisocial behavior. The reality is that the rate of serious violent crime in today’s modern societies is very low. This means that most young men, despite having high levels of testosterone in their bodies, usually do not engage in this type of criminal violence. However, this type of violence happens more among young people than among middle-aged men, and the high level of testosterone can be one of the factors involved in it.
28 November 2013 10:27
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