Male hormone affects the manifestation of paternal care
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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American scientists, in the course of their research, decided to establish whether a really high level of testosterone in the body affects the desire to take part in the upbringing of their own children.
At the beginning of the 20th century, a theory was put forward that both the father and mother should make the same contribution to the upbringing of their children. But in the second half of the twentieth century, the attitude of men to the educational process of their own children changed - they began to pay less attention to this. Scientists were interested in the question, in connection with which, men do not want to take part in the upbringing of children. The researchers have an interesting theory: a high level of testosterone in the blood increases the propensity to polygamy, if a man is married, the chances of destroying the family increase several times. A low level of testosterone reduces aggressiveness, weakens sexual desire. As a result, these men have a desire to engage in children and more emotionally related to them.
A group of scientists decided to conduct experiments and prove the reliability of the theory put forward. The goal of the specialists was to find out how the desire of a man to care for his children and the level in the male hormone, as well as the size of the testicles, which significantly affects the quantitative and qualitative composition of the sperm, is related, but whether their size is related to the manifestation of paternal feelings and the desire to take care of children , was to find out. The study involved 70 men, whose average age was around 33 years, 65 people were married and all participants in the experiment had children of one to two years of age.
First of all, scientists had to find out whether the desire of the father to participate in the educational process is inversely related to the level of the main male hormone and the size of its testicles. The degree of paternal care was assessed by tests (written by husband and wife). Questions on the type who are engaged in bathing a child, who rises to him at night, who visits a polyclinic, it was necessary to assess on a five-point scale, where 1 - mother, 5 - father. The answers of the pairs were almost identical. Also in the questionnaire were included questions about the father's desire to spend more time with his children in order to exclude the inaccuracies that may occur as a result of the increase in the level of the male hormone as a result of stress or external factors.
Activity in the corresponding area of the brain with crying or photograph of the child is more pronounced in the mother, especially after the birth of the baby.
All the men who took part in the experiment were shown several photos of an unfamiliar adult, an alien child and their own children, and the emotional state depicted in the photo was the same. Response in the corresponding part of the brain to a photo depicting his child was more active with more caring men towards his children.
As for the relationship between the manifestation of paternal care and the size of the testicles, here the theory was confirmed only in part, but the level of the male hormone in the body did not affect the desire to take care of children.
Despite the fact that the results of the experiment turned out to be quite accurate, the project manager Jennifer Mascaro assures that research in this area should not be stopped. In the course of the experiments, inaccuracies could arise, due to the physiological state of the man due to external factors.
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