Open AccessThe putative chemosignal androstadienone makes women more generous.
Author(s) -
Valentina Perrotta,
Michele Graffeo,
Nicolao Bonini,
Jay A. Gottfried
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of neuroscience, psychology, and economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.275
H-Index - 27
eISSN - 2151-318X
pISSN - 1937-321X
DOI - 10.1037/npe0000055
Subject(s) - mood , odor , dictator game , psychology , context (archaeology) , cognition , affect (linguistics) , perception , social psychology , subliminal stimuli , developmental psychology , biology , psychiatry , communication , neuroscience , paleontology
Putative human chemosignals have been shown to influence mood states and emotional processing, but the connection between these effects and higher-order cognitive processing is not well established. This study utilized an economic game (Dictator Game) to test whether androstadienone (AND), an odorous compound derived from testosterone, impacts on altruistic behavior. We predicted that the female participants would act more generously in the AND condition, exhibiting a significant interaction effect between gender and AND on Dictator Game contributions. We also expected that the presence of AND should increase the positive mood of the female participants, compared to a control odor condition and also compared to the mood of the male participants. The results confirm our hypotheses: for women the subliminal perception of AND led to larger monetary donations, compared to a control odor, and also increased positive mood. These effects were absent or significantly weaker in men. Our findings highlight the capacity of human putative chemosignals to influence emotions and higher cognitive processes - in particular the processes used in the context of economic decisions - in a gender-specific way.