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Social status and prenatal testosterone exposure assessed via second-to-fourth digit ratio affect 6-9-year-old children's prosocial choices.

ABSTRACT: Prosocial behaviour (i.e., voluntary behaviour intended to benefit another) seems to be fully developed in children by the age of 6 years. However, questions about which factors modify prosocial behaviour at that age remain understudied. Here we used a resource allocation paradigm to test prosocial behaviour in 6-9-year-old school children. They could decide between a "selfish" (i.e., one sticker for themselves) and a "prosocial" option (i.e., one sticker for themselves and one for the receiver) and we tested whether friendship, social status and prenatal androgen exposure (approximated by the 2nd to 4th digit ratio; 2D:4D) influenced children's prosocial choices. We found that children behaved prosocially, and that their prosocial tendencies were negatively correlated with prenatal androgen exposure; i.e., children with high 2D:4D ratios (reflecting low prenatal androgen exposure) acted more prosocially than children with low 2D:4D ratios. Further, their social status in the classroom influenced their choices: children with fewer interaction partners chose the "prosocial" option more often than more 'popular' children. However, they did so irrespectively of whether they were paired with a recipient or not. Our results highlight the importance of considering social, as well as physiological factors when investigating prosocial behaviour in children.

SUBMITTER: Horn L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6004003 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Social status and prenatal testosterone exposure assessed via second-to-fourth digit ratio affect 6-9-year-old children's prosocial choices.

Horn Lisa L Hungerländer Niklas A NA Windhager Sonja S Bugnyar Thomas T Massen Jorg J M JJM

Scientific reports 20180615 1

Prosocial behaviour (i.e., voluntary behaviour intended to benefit another) seems to be fully developed in children by the age of 6 years. However, questions about which factors modify prosocial behaviour at that age remain understudied. Here we used a resource allocation paradigm to test prosocial behaviour in 6-9-year-old school children. They could decide between a "selfish" (i.e., one sticker for themselves) and a "prosocial" option (i.e., one sticker for themselves and one for the receiver) ...[more]

PMID: 29907777

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Project description:ObjectivesTo explore whether random chance, weak research methodology, or inappropriate reporting can lead to claims of statistically significant (yet, biologically meaningless) biomarker associations, using as a model the relation between a common surrogate of prenatal testosterone exposure, second-to-fourth digit ratio (2D:4D), and a random indicator of good luck.DesignCross sectional study.SettingUniversity sports performance laboratory in the United States. Data were collected from May 2015 to February 2017.Participants176 adults (74 women, 102 men), including university students, faculty, and staff with no history of injuries, disease, or medical conditions that would affect digit length.Main outcome measures2D:4D, body composition parameters potentially influenced by androgens (bone mineral content, bone mineral density, body fat percentage), and good luck (using poker hands from randomly selected playing cards as a surrogate).Results2D:4D significantly correlated with select body composition parameters (Spearman's r s range -0.26 to 0.23; P<0.05), but the correlations varied by sex, participant hand measured, and the method of measuring 2D:4D (by photocopy or radiography). However, the strongest correlation observed was between right hand 2D:4D in men measured by radiograph and poker hand rank (r s=0.28, P=0.004).ConclusionsGreater prenatal exposure to testosterone, as estimated by a lower 2D:4D, significantly increases good luck in adulthood, and also modulates body composition (albeit to a lesser degree). While these findings are consistent with a wealth of research reporting that 2D:4D is related to many seemingly disparate outcomes, they are not meant to provide confirmatory evidence that 2D:4D is a universal biomarker of nearly everything. Instead, the associations between 2D:4D and good luck are simply due to chance, and provide a "handy" example of the reproducibility crisis within medical and scientific research. Biologically sound hypotheses, pre-registration of trials, strong methodological and statistical analyses, transparent reporting of negative results, and unbiased interpretation of data are all necessary for biomarker studies and other areas of clinical research.

Dataset Information

Social status and prenatal testosterone exposure assessed via second-to-fourth digit ratio affect 6-9-year-old children's prosocial choices.

Publications

Social status and prenatal testosterone exposure assessed via second-to-fourth digit ratio affect 6-9-year-old children's prosocial choices.

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