| Thanks. I spent a few minutes reflecting on this and googling papers. Turns out that "will" is a vague concept and doesn't have great neurological or animal models. However, we can use some reasonable proxies! I would argue that "libido" is the most obvious one. I recently heard a multimillionaire admit (with some embarrassment) that "we really do all this to get girls." ( I assume "libido is a function of testosterone" requires no citation ;) Testosterone directly affects dopamine levels, dopamine sensitivity, and willingness to engage in competitive behavior: https://www.edenclinic.co.uk/post/testosterone-and-the-brain Another factor is "goal-directed behavior", which is mediated indirectly by "increased sense of agency" > these results further imply that through an embodied SoA, testosterone can ultimately modulate higher-order experiences of social power and goal-directed behaviour. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-Effect-of-Testoste... At the societal level there is a fascinating (and deeply disturbing) book by J. D. Unwin, who studied thousands of civilizations: >The book concluded with the theory that as societies develop, they become more sexually liberal, accelerating the social entropy of the society, thereby diminishing its "creative" and "expansive" energy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_and_Culture Notably, conscientiousness and executive function are not enhanced by testosterone. However, deficiency is associated with fatigue, depression, brain fog etc. So it supports "will" by supporting overall health, and a population-wide ~50% decline does not sound healthy to me. |