Testosterone and Occupational Achievement

Abstract

Men with higher levels of serum testosterone have lower-status occupations, as indicated by archival data from 4,462 military veterans in six U.S. census occupational groups. This finding supports a structural equation model in which higher testosterone, mediated through lower intellectual ability, higher antisocial behavior, and lower education, leads away from white-collar occupations. The model is plausible because testosterone levels are heritable and available early enough to affect a number of paths leading to occupational achievement. Prior research has related testosterone to aggression in animals and men, and high levels of testosterone presumably evolved in association with dominance in individual and small-group settings. It appears an irony of androgens that testosterone, which evolved in support of a primitive kind of status, now conflicts with the achievement of occupational status. Occupations are cultural creations, and cultural forces lead us toward or away from them. The choice of an occupation depends upon skill, experience, and the work available in a particular society. Biological factors are not usually considered, beyond those so potent as to be of little psychological interest: sumo wrestlers are large, airline pilots have good vision, and most professors are mentally competent. But on a subtle level, biological factors act through small and continuing effects on thoughts, feelings, and behavior. Arvey et al. (1989) found job satisfaction to be heritable, though they did not indicate the biological factors that are important or the pathways through which these factors operate. The hormone testosterone may be one such factor. Testosterone has been associated with dominance (Mazur 1985), aggression (Bernstein, Rose & Gordon 1974; Rose 1978), antisocial behavior (Dabbs & Morris 1990), sensation seeking (Daitzman & Zuckerman 1980), automaticity and perseverant responding (Broverman et al. 1964; van Hest, van Haaren & van de Poll 1989), libido (Morris et al. 1987; Sherwin, Gelfand & Brender 1985), low verbal intelligence * This work was supported bygrantMH42525from theAntisocial and ViolentBehaviorBranch of the National Institute of Mental Health. Data were originally gathered as part of the Vietnam Experience Study, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control, U. S. Public Health Service, under a cooperative agreement with the Veterans Administration. I thank Julie Chambliss for her extensive and careful help in correcting the occupational codes. Direct correspondence to James M. Dabbs, Jr., Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303. i The University of North Carolina Press Social Forces, March 1992, 70(3):813-824 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.184 on Sun, 15 May 2016 05:29:01 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 814 / Social Forces 70:3, March 1992 (Dabbs, Jurkovic & Frady 1991), and lower verbal than spatial intelligence (Christiansen & Knussmann 1987). Testosterone in utero leads to sexual differentiation and development of the right side of the brain, possibly related to increased spatial ability and decreased verbal ability (Geschwind & Behan 1984). Receptors in the amygdala, hypothalamus, and preoptic areas (Rees, Bonsall & Michael 1986) could allow testosterone to affect on-going functioning of the brain. Three studies have related testosterone to occupation. Schindler (1979), studying 64 women, found salivary testosterone higher in attorneys than in athletes, nurses, or teachers. Purifoy and Koopmans (1979), studying 55 women, found serum testosterone higher in women who were students or professional and technical workers than in those who were clerical workers or housewives. Dabbs, de La Rue & Williams (1990), studying 67 actors, ministers, professors, physicians, firemen, salesmen, and football players, found salivary testosterone higher among actors and football players than among ministers; they replicated the actor-minister difference among 48 subjects in two additional studies. Individual differences in testosterone are heritable (Meikle et al. 1987) and thus could enter into causal chains leading to occupational choice. Because testosterone is an archaic hormone, present in many animals and even plants, there is no reason to expect it to be closely related to modem human occupations. However, behavioral and cognitive correlates of testosterone might make a person better suited to one occupation or another. In particular, antisocial and violent tendencies (Dabbs & Morris 1990) could lead to behavior and educational levels that are more appropriate for some occupations than others. The occupational studies have involved small samples and a limited range of occupations. More information is needed, including information on mediating variables. The present study examined testosterone, antisocial behavior, education, intelligence, and occupation in a large sample of former military servicemen. Structural equation models tested the hypothesis that a relationship between testosterone and occupational choice is mediated by antisocial behavior, intellectual ability, and education.