[magic-chicken]

What? Are you suggesting that left-leaning voters have a lower level of testosterone than right-leaning voters?

> After all, lead poisoning was suggested as one of the possible reasons for the decline of the Roman empire.

What are you trying to imply here? Microplastic -> Low Testorone -> Socialist government -> Decline of civilisation?

[formerly_proven]

This talking point is posted by sock puppets literally every time a topic like this comes up.

[arsome]

I mean I can sort of follow the logic - testosterone tends to cause more aggressiveness which can often lead to competitiveness, and arguably the basis for capitalist society is putting competitiveness to work. If you decrease the average interest in competitiveness you may see an uptick in socialist leanings and, many capitalists would argue, a decline in overall productivity.

Now, there's obviously many benefits that may also be seen with a less aggressive or even less competitive population, but the basic principle doesn't seem insane here, it seems a bit of a stretch and requires some serious leaps that I'm not sure are remotely proven though...

[XorNot]

Testosterone being linked to aggression in humans is on shaky footings at best: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31785281/

The studies involved have a number of confounding factors, and notably the use of clinical manipulation of testosterone levels fails to find consistent effect.

[Damorian]

The premise of this comment is absurd, and that meta-analysis is hilarious. "Testosterone level isn't closely linked to aggression, at least compared to being a man and a criminal." This is a case of common sense, and thousands of years of experience in the effects of castration on humans and animals, being more valuable than modern "science".

[jxramos]

I thought I remember hearing one of the side effects of taking roids (steroids) is that the abuser loses self control more frequently and has tantrums and aggressive behavior and the like. Is that true?

[Damorian]

At least according to several studies (though unsure if they're included in the above meta-analysis), the government's drug abuse pages, countless anecdotes, and the existence of the term "roid rage".

[XorNot]

Castration is a lot more then just reducing testosterone levels.

[arsome]

Yeah, I was wondering how much questionable pop-sci crap that was when I was writing it. Thanks, I'll have to read more into it.

[mekkkkkk]

So why post it? You rationalize and give credence to goofball theories for fun?

[goldenManatee]

You could also spin this argument to say that testosterone aggression causes people to fail to cooperate and societies would soon fall into chaos as everyone is out for themselves. These pseudo/pop scienciness is poor logic and unprofessional.

[dlkinney]

> societies would soon fall into chaos as everyone is out for themselves.

I'm not sure how this accurate description of the entire history of human society is supposed to refute their hypothesis?