[Opinion] Guest Essay

Testosterone Is Being Misunderstood

January 1, 2026

By Robert M. Sapolsky

Professor of Biology and Neuroscience at Stanford University and Primatologist

One day in 1983, I was in the Serengeti in East Africa observing a nine-year-old male baboon. Baboon troops have a very strict hierarchy, and this guy was the textbook type we're all familiar with: a young, macho 'brawler' with ambitions to climb the ranks and kick out the alpha male.

But the alpha male, who was busy grooming a young female, didn't seem to care even as the challenger raised his eyebrows in a threat and bared his canines. Only after the young baboon got closer, making throat-scratching noises and slapping the ground, did the alpha stop what he was doing and stare back during a moment of high tension. Then, the alpha ignored the histrionics and went back to grooming. Eventually, the challenger just stomped off in frustration.

According to my research on these baboons, alpha males who are secure and confident in their position rarely get into fights and generally have lower testosterone levels than the hot-headed challengers.

The 'Low T' Political Smear

Lately, in certain sensitive corners of the MAGA world, 'low testosterone (low T)' is being used as a petty way to belittle men they despise—mostly left-leaning men who favor empathy, equality, or even democracy.

For instance, Elon Musk recently shared a long-winded post suggesting that 'men with low testosterone can't think freely because they can't physically defend themselves.' Think back to the 'soy boy' insult that was trending in those same circles a few years ago. It’s based on the debunked belief that chemicals in soy feminize a man's hormonal makeup.

Scientific Misconceptions About Testosterone

Beyond my own research, decades of data show that testosterone doesn't guarantee dominance, nor is it a simple 'trigger' for aggression.

This might sound surprising. Males of many species, including humans, tend to have higher testosterone and be more aggressive than females. Aggression and T-levels rise together during puberty, and species that fight over territory every year see both spikes during that season.

But here's the catch: there's evidence that causality can work in the opposite direction. In other words, engaging in aggressive behavior can actually cause a surge in testosterone.

Also, consider the oldest experiment in endocrinology: castration. While removing the source of testosterone causes aggression to plummet in many species, it doesn't hit zero. There's evidence that individuals with more aggressive social experience before castration maintain that aggression longer afterward.

Crucially, within the normal range, testosterone levels aren't a strong predictor of aggression. In the amygdala—the brain's aggression center—testosterone rarely just 'wakes up' a sleeping neuron to kickstart an aggressive circuit.

An Amplifier for 'Status Threat' Sensitivity

Today, scientists believe testosterone makes you more sensitive to threats against your 'status.' It can even make you perceive imaginary threats and amplify your aggressive response to them. For example, a male impala with high testosterone becomes more sensitive to territorial shifts, attacking an intruder when they're 100 yards away instead of the usual 50.

Think back to the playground. If someone insulted you and you hit back with a sharp 'No u' or a witty comeback, you dominated the situation and gained status. If testosterone is primarily about status, we get some interesting insights. Maybe the MAGA trolls hurling 'low T' insults are trying to gain status through that act. In their subculture, testosterone is the engine driving these primates to spit out pseudo-science at their enemies.

Changing the Definition of Status Changes Behavior

There's a famous experiment from 1977. After a monkey troop's hierarchy was established, a castrated male was injected with a large dose of testosterone. Did he start emitting 'High T' energy like Musk, challenging his superiors to reach the top? Not at all. He just started acting like a total asshole to his subordinates. He treated every gesture from those below him as a provocation. Testosterone didn't create new patterns of aggression; it just reinforced the status he already had and amplified the aggressive behaviors he knew he could get away with.

While a beta fish or a baboon might respond to status competition with a fight, humans earn status in countless ways: winning an election, being praised as a great haiku poet, winning a Nobel Prize, or getting Beyoncé’s phone number. Human status wars can be purely symbolic. Testosterone levels rise during tennis or chess matches, even though the loser isn't destined to be eaten by hyenas.

This raises a fascinating possibility: What role does testosterone play when kindness becomes status? According to pioneering research by Christoph Eisenegger at the University of Zurich, in economic games where reputation is earned by making fair offers, subjects given testosterone actually acted *more* fairly (without knowing if they got the hormone or a placebo). Other studies show testosterone can reduce lying in men—likely because the temptation to lie challenged the 'high moral status' they valued, and the hormone strengthened their resolve to protect that status.

Conclusion

What does all this tell us? If society is filled with aggression, don't blame the testosterone. Blame ourselves for being the ones who grant status to aggressive behavior.