The Social Neuroendocrinology of Status

地位等级是我们日常社会交往的一部分，地位较高的人有很多优势，包括获得资源和更好的健康状况。社会和人格心理学研究的一个关键领域是了解地位等级是如何形成和维持的。谁在他们的群体中获得更高的地位（例如，领导职位），以及如何获得？由于社会等级中地位较高的人比地位较低的人更有好处，这些问题的答案对解释招聘、薪酬和健康等结果的差异具有根本性的意义。关于地位的传统生物社会理论认为，睾酮浓度的升高会通过增强主导行为（如自信、果断）而导致地位的提高，但支持这些理论的证据并不一致。最近，俄勒冈大学的Pranjal Mehta和他的同事提出，睾丸激素可能与环境因素和其他激素相互作用，以调节与追求社会地位有关的行为。在这种双系统方法的基础上，拟议的研究调查了睾酮对社会地位的影响在多大程度上取决于皮质醇，皮质醇是生理和心理压力期间释放的一种激素。这项研究将对社会地位的基本生物社会机制产生新的见解。这些研究对设计旨在改善地位较低、被边缘化的个人和群体的专业和健康结果的心理干预措施具有许多意义。根据双激素假说，睾酮只有在皮质醇水平较低时才会提升社会地位。本研究将测试一个新的假设，即睾酮和皮质醇应该通过支配性和亲社会行为（如友好、慷慨）共同战略性地激发行为，根据社会环境提高一个人的地位。本研究将在模拟工作面试环境、群体社会互动和现实世界地位等级中测试这种地位获得的生物社会机制。本研究整合了社会人格心理学和行为神经内分泌学的前沿方法，包括激素管理、内源性激素测量、社会环境实验操作和行为观察。该研究检查了基线激素浓度以及环境驱动的激素随时间的波动，以了解内分泌系统如何动态影响和受追求地位的行为和社会地位的影响。

Status hierarchies are a part of our everyday social interactions, and those with higher status have numerous advantages, including access to resources and improved health. A key area of research within social and personality psychology is to understand how status hierarchies are formed and maintained. Who attains higher status positions within their groups (e.g., leadership positions), and how? Because higher status in social hierarchies confers benefits compared to lower status, answers to these questions have fundamental implications for explaining disparities in outcomes such as hiring, pay, and health. Traditional biosocial theories of status propose that elevated testosterone concentrations should lead to higher status by enhancing dominant behaviors (e.g., confidence, assertiveness), but evidence in support of these theories is inconsistent. Recently Pranjal Mehta (University of Oregon) and his colleagues have proposed that testosterone may interact with contextual factors and other hormones to regulate behaviors implicated in the pursuit of social status. Building on this dual-systems approach, the proposed research investigates the extent to which testosterone's influence on social status depends on cortisol, a hormone released during periods of physical and psychological stress. This research will generate novel insights into the fundamental biosocial mechanisms of social status. These studies have numerous implications for designing psychological interventions aimed at improving professional and health outcomes among lower status, marginalized individuals and groups.According to the dual-hormone hypothesis, testosterone should enhance social status only when cortisol is low. The proposed research will test the novel hypothesis that testosterone and cortisol should jointly strategically motivate behaviors that improve one's status depending on the social context, through both dominance and pro-social behaviors (e.g., friendliness, generosity). The proposed research will test this biosocial mechanism of status attainment in a mock job interview setting, group-based social interactions, and real-world status hierarchies. The studies integrate cutting-edge methodologies within social-personality psychology and behavioral neuroendocrinology to address the research aims, including hormone administration, endogenous hormone measurement, experimental manipulations of social context, and behavioral observation. The research examines both baseline hormone concentrations as well as context-driven hormone fluctuations over time in order to understand how endocrine systems dynamically influence and are influenced by status-seeking behaviors and social status.