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Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, August, 2002 by Adrian Raine
HORMONES, NEUROTRANSMITTERS, AND TOXINS
Hormones
Research on links between hormones and antisocial, aggressive behavior illustrates the complexities of biology--behavior relationships, and clearly demonstrates the influence of the social context on biological functioning. Detailed reviews of the bidirectional relationship between hormones and behavior and of the influence of social context on hormones may be found in Dabbs (1992), Mazur and Booth (1999), Susman (1993), Susman and Ponirakis (1997), and Tremblay et al. (1997).
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Although links between high testosterone and self-report measures of aggression are relatively weak (Archer, 1991), there is now convincing evidence from a wide number of behavioral studies for a link between high testosterone and increased aggressive and violent behavior (see reviews by Archer, 1991; Dabbs, 1992; Harris, 1999; Mazur & Booth, 1999; Raine, 2002). Particularly persuasive are experimental randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover trials in normal men that show that testosterone administration increases aggression (Pope et al., 2000). Nevertheless, it also appears that although aggression--testosterone links are well-established with respect to adult aggressive and violent behavior, this relationship may be absent, or even reversed, with respect to aggression during childhood (Susman & Ponirakis, 1997; Tremblay et al., 1997).
An understanding of why the aggression--testosterone relationship washes out in childhood may be gained from consideration of social influences on testosterone. It is well-established that high testosterone is associated with both high dominance and high socioeconomic status, and while experience of success increases testosterone, failure reduces it (Dabbs, 1992; Mazur & Booth, 1999). Aggressive children are more likely to be rejected by their peers in school (Dodge, Lochman, Harnish, & Bates, 1997), and it may be this social ostracization and failure in academia that artificially reduces their otherwise high testosterone levels. This interpretation is supported by two pieces of evidence. First, Tremblay et al. (1997) report that 13-year-old boys who are both physically tough and who are well-liked have high testosterone levels. Second, although Tremblay et al. (1997) found that aggressive boys have low testosterone at ages 13 and 14, follow up at age 16 after 30% had dropped out of school show them to have substantially higher testosterone than nonaggressive boys. It may be that aggression-- testosterone links are found in violent offenders during adulthood because they are better able to use their aggression to raise their dominance status within their antisocial subcultures and achieve some degree of social success.
Despite the clear evidence that contextual and environmental influences alter both testosterone and cortisol, few researchers have tested for biosocial interactions in the way that they have been tested for psychophysiological and obstetric factors. Dabbs and Morris (1990) found that in low SES subjects, those with high testosterone had higher levels of childhood and adulthood delinquency, whereas these effects were not found for high SES subjects. On the other hand, risk ratios for some measures of antisocial behavior (military AWOL, marijuana use, many sex partners) were equally high in both SES groups, and consequently these initial findings should be viewed with caution. Nevertheless, Scarpa et al. (1999) found that children who both gave large cortisol responses to a provocation task and who also had been physically abused had the highest aggression scores. Both of these hormonal studies are therefore similar in that biology--antisocial relationships were more marked in those from negative environments (low SES, abuse), and lie in contrast to studies measuring psychophysiological and brain imaging risk factors (low heart rate, low skin conductance, increased vagal tone, low prefrontal activity), which find antisocial--psychophysiology relationships strongest in those from benign home backgrounds. It remains to be seen whether further hormone studies find stronger hormone--antisocial links in those from negative rather than positive home backgrounds.
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