Correlating testosterone and fighting in male participants in judo contests

The role of hormones in human aggression is open to debate, but takes on a new urgency owing to the alarming abuse of androgenic anabolic steroids by some sports participants. In this study, video-taped behavior exhibited by 28 male competitors during a judo fight was assessed to analyze its relatio n to serum testosterone and cortisol levels measured before and after the b outs. A positive relation between testosterone and offensive behaviors was obtained in the sense that the greater the hormonal titer, the greater the number of threats, fights, and attacks. These findings coincide with the pa ttern of relationships found using observational scales. Conversely, cortis ol also presented positive correlations with some of these behavioral categ ories but did not moderate the relationship between testosterone and compet itive behavior. The present results corroborate and extend earlier findings on the role of these hormones in human behavior, giving support to the vie w that testosterone can be linked to the expression of competitive aggressi on. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.