Testosterone Interferes With Empathy, Study Indicates

I’m sure this won’t come as a surprise to all you long-suffering women out there.

A new study indicates that testosterone, the male sex hormone, may interfere with empathy, according to the BBC News.

Sixteen women volunteers were given a small dosage of testosterone, then asked to examine pictures of faces and guess the mood of the person pictured.  While women typically are better able at determining mood than men, after being administered testosterone, their results deteriorated.

Researchers say that this may provide a clue into the development of autism, which is defined, in part, by difficulty in communicating and interacting socially.  It can be a challenge for people living with autism to read the emotions of otherwise – in other words, to empathize with them.

Autism occurs in a much higher rate than males and females, and some scientists suspect it may be due to testosterone exposure in the womb.

Click here to read more from the BBC News.