Hey Professor of Economics Jeremy C. Stein and Professor of Psychology Marc D. Hauser! What’s the deal with this new
By Synne D. Chapman
Oct 8, 2008
Hey Professor of Economics Jeremy C. Stein and Professor of Psychology Marc D. Hauser! What’s the deal with this new study co-authored by Coren L. Apicella’s that says higher testosterone levels in men means riskier financial behavior? Did a couple of hyperactive libidos screw the nation for $700 billion?
Professor Stein: “I think it’s probably right. There was a paper a few years ago where it looked at people’s brokerage accounts and it showed that men traded more aggressively and more stupidly than women. They traded more, they lost more money. And I was always beating up on that in my class, because I thought, well, it could be cultural, it could be gender, it could be something else. But this, I sort of believe this. I think it would be misleading to try and say it’s related to the financial crisis, because that’s more about institutional fallibility. I don’t think we would have had a much better outcome if we had given guys shots or something to lower their testosterone levels. But there’s something there.”
Professor Hauser: “There is only one thing to conclude from Coren’s elegant study: all the fat cats on wall street, who caused the market to spiral, and forced our Senate to support a massive bailout, should be given weekly injections to reduce their testosterone. How dare they let nature play with our money!”
