Authors
Keith M Welker, Brian M Bird, Steven Arnocky
Publication date
2016/11/18
Journal
Frontiers in psychology
Volume
7
Pages
1745
Publisher
Frontiers
Description
Facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR), the ratio of the distance between the left and right zygomatic bones to the distance between the upper lip and brow, predicts many traits, displays, and behaviors, including male aggression, trustworthiness, risk-taking, and physical formidability (eg, Carré et al., 2009; Stirrat and Perrett, 2010; Welker et al., 2015; Zilioli et al., 2015). One theorized mechanism for linking fWHR to these behavioral traits and displays is pubertal exposure to testosterone, which may reflect androgenic organizational effects on neural circuitry related to these behaviors (Carré and McCormick, 2008). Lending support to this possibility, some work suggests that low-dose administrations of testosterone modulate craniofacial growth in boys with delayed puberty (Verdonck et al., 1999), but until now, research has not examined this association. Hodges-Simeon et al.(2016) recently examined testosterone and fWHR in 75 adolescent Tsimane males, reporting that fWHR is not associated with testosterone. However, when age was controlled for in the paper, the testosterone-fWHR association was significant and of a moderate effect size (rpartial= 0.28, p< 0.05). Regardless, Hodges-Simeon and colleagues conclude that these findings cast doubt on the possibility that pubertal testosterone is associated with fWHR. We are pleased at the arrival of new research to test this predicted association. However, we note several limitations with this study. First, there is a strong association between testosterone and age reported in this paper (r= 0.82, p< 0.01). Generally, it is helpful to control for other factors that might influence an association or the …
Total citations
2017201820192020202120222023316818104