Roommates and friends of those involved in long-term relationships are wont to make amusing “married couple” jokes. As it turns out, these jokes might be justified, hormonally speaking.
This past June, Peter Gray, a graduate student in Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dean Peter T. Ellison’s reproductive ecology lab, concluded that married men have lower testosterone levels than unmarried men. Now researchers have reason to believe that the same is true of men who are involved in serious relationships—and Harvard students’ saliva is their testing ground. Quincy House Assistant Senior Tutor Judith Flynn Chapman is one of the scientists working to discover whether a pseudo-marriage in college actually lowers hormone levels or whether men with lower amounts of testosterone are more biologically prone to couple up.
Chapman, who is now completing her dissertation in biological anthropology, says that she has always been interested in these sorts of science-based sociological questions. “Isn’t everyone interested in sex?” she asks matter-of-factly. Chapman is also interested in conducting a “longitudinal” study in the future where the testosterone levels of young men would be followed through college to marriage in order to observe actual changes.
According to Chapman (and the WB) the college years are very hormonally charged. “This is a very artificial environment,” Chapman says. “You take a whole lot of 18- to 21-year-olds and put them all together, and prime reproductive hormones are going to be all around.” In fact, male hormone levels peak between the ages of 18 and 21 (though women’s hormone levels do not reach an equivalent peak until they are 27 to 30).
Tabling and testing in Quincy House, under signs pleading for people to “spit for science,” Chapman puts her subjects through very basic tests. They’re asked to anonymously fill out a survey and submit a sample of saliva to test current hormone levels. Chapman’s team photocopies students’ hands to test for a correlation between finger length ratios and testosterone levels. A larger difference between the fourth and second fingers indicates a greater prenatal exposure to the hormone. And if the joy of pure science doesn’t excite on its own, there is a one dollar stipend included in the experiment “kit,” an oversized white envelope,
So how raging are the hormones in Quincy House? Chapman is hesitant to say. “Quincy’s a great House, but I don’t think its especially charged,” she says. “I actually think Harvard is pretty tame as a school. You guys only have so much energy, and a lot of you are putting all you’ve got into schoolwork and extracurriculars.”
