Men’s favorite saying, “I thought you liked me,” is women’s biggest fear. It is common for men to misinterpret friendly behavior from women as flirting, looking for some false romantic interest. When women are just polite and kind, men look for non-existent romantic signals in their friendly gestures. They just assume that women like it. Well, it seems that there is a lot of science behind this behavior. A study published in Frontiers in Psychology sheds light on the role of testosterone, the male sex hormone, in determining the understanding of social cues.
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Evolutionary origins
Many psychologists have tried to understand the impulsive tendency to jump to conclusions, suggesting that it may even have an evolutionary origin. The urgency arises from the fear of losing a potential partner to avoid bad reproductive consequences. This study focused on the effects of testosterone on shaping male behavior.
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Study author Stefan M. Goetz said: “The sexual over-perception hypothesis has become a key example in evolutionary psychology. This suggests that due to an adaptive advantage of minimizing lost mating opportunities, males tend to overestimate sexual interest.” Goetz added, “While researchers have studied many ‘how’ questions about sex differences in behavior, few have examined whether testosterone, the hormone that mediates male traits, is associated with this bias, and none has shown a causal relationship.” Researchers studied a group of 190 heterosexual men between the ages of 18 and 40.
The role of self-image
Testosterone is not alone in causing men to misinterpret a woman’s friendliness. Self-perceived attractiveness means that men who perceive themselves to be more attractive are more likely to assert themselves and overestimate the friendliness of a romantic interest.
Testosterone increases sensitivity to friendly gestures only in men who know they are somewhat attractive. Therefore, only a positive self-image enhances the effect of the hormone. Men often project their romantic interest onto women, leading them to believe that a woman is interested in him when in fact he is attracted to her. Testosterone increases the tendency toward this projection.
Researchers are also shedding light on what shapes male behavior. The sex hormone testosterone is solely responsible; other factors such as cultural and social influences also play an important role. Gender roles and behaviors emerge as a result of a complex force of biological and environmental factors, the latter especially playing an important role in shaping masculinity.
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