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PINOCCHIO FILE:1998TSIF032.pf
contr. C. Blair:
They Can't Help It
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A Forensic Psychologist's thoughts
on the relationship between Lying and Testosterone'THEY CAN'T HELP IT'by: Cathy Blair |
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2 Pages - Page 1 |
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"A high testosterone level is directly linked with manipulating behaviour as lying. In my practise as a forensic psychologist at the Stockholm Bureau of Investigation (1982-1987) I kept notes on the men I interviewed during a crime investigation. This resulted in a collection of staggering conclusions, though not always politically correct, I would like to share with you in order to give you a little more insight in the behaviour of the human male."
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| Why are men bigger liars than women? |
| Men, in general, are bigger liars than women - a fact that has led me to investigate possible links between levels of male hormones (particularly testosterone) and manipulative, aggressive and criminal behavior.
After conscientiously interviewing 462 men and 31 women over 3 years I found that the overall picture among the high-testosterone men is one of delinquency, substance abuse and a tendency toward excessive lying. These men, I may add, had more trouble with authority figures and women while they were growing up, had more sexual partners, were more likely to lie to their partners and children, particularly if they had poor educations and low incomes. Also in women I found that high testosterone levels were related with compulsive lying and unprovoked sexual behaviour. Moreover I started to conclude that levels of testosterone are directly linked with an individual's intractability, unmanageability, and lack of docility: and there you have three strong character descriptions of the male sex. |
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| And what can we do about it? |
Attempts to reduce compulsive lying by the male sex have included surgical castration and chemical castration (the use of female hormones to suppress testosterone levels) of sex offenders. Studies suggest that either approach can be effective; a 1989 German study by Bille and Weier, for instance, compared 99 surgically castrated sex offenders and 35 non-castrated sex offenders about a decade after their release from prison, and found that the recidivism rate of castrated offenders was 3%, while the rate for non-castrated offenders was 46%.
Until this day, castration is not an accepted practice in the United States because of both ethical and medical concerns. But a new study suggests that even mild reductions in testosterone levels - far short of the somewhat more drastic reductions induced by castration - can already significantly reduce the compulsive lying of men. | |
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