The Effects of Testosterone Indicators on Consumer Risk-Taking

Abstract

Although extensive research has examined physiological influences on consumer behavior, how hormones influence risk-taking behavior is not yet well understood. My dissertation focuses on how testosterone might influence consumer risk-taking. In paper one (Stenstrom & Saad, 2011), the literature on testosterone and risk-taking is reviewed. We argue that testosterone has organizational and activational effects on both financial risk-taking and pathological gambling. In paper two (Stenstrom, Saad, Nepomuceno, & Mendenhall, 2011), we focus on the organizational effects of testosterone on risk-taking. Specifically, the association between digit ratio, a proxy of prenatal testosterone exposure, and risk-taking across five domains (recreational, social, financial, health-related, and ethical) is investigated. We find that digit ratio is predictive of risk-taking propensity in recreational, social, and financial (but not health-related or ethical) domains in Caucasian males. In paper three (Stenstrom & Saad, Working Paper), we shift our attention towards activational effects of testosterone on risk-taking. We investigate how exposure to babies, which purportedly elicits testosterone changes, influences risk-taking. In particular, we show that exposure to visual baby stimuli leads to lesser risk-taking among non-parents, while eliciting greater risk-taking among parents. Further, we find that baby sounds (laughs and cries) lead to lesser risk-taking in non-parents. Taken together, the three papers herein suggest that testosterone has both organizational and activational effects on consumer risk-taking, and that future research would benefit from considering hormonal, evolutionary, and social influences on risk-taking.

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