An ad trying to sell me products for male skin care that will make my skin “practically glow” - in the middle of a video on the scientific basis of how testosterone works in the brain to promote “status-retaining behavior” = greatest troll of all time. Fine work with that one!
It is a motivator for “games” or motives which will permit you to maintain status, or maintain a perceived status which is seen as “positive” according to moral and social norms of the context the individual is in. If the “game” in question doesn’t have some form of reward which will logically help you maintain status (e.g. money, your sports team maintaining their #1 position, being an olympic champion defending his title, even defending the title of best drummer as in Whiplash) then there is no effect testosterone will have on such endeavours. Now dopamine, on the other hand… can make you gamble away tons of money in risky ways, in particular settings, like in a casino or a poker bet. Even though testosterone could probably make you take “less risks” in the same scenario, as it acts to reinforce a tendency to maintain your gains you already have and disregard risk/reward ratios which seem unlikely and unfavourable.
The best way I ever heard it summarized: "Testosterone makes effort feel good." That lines up with my own experience. I was at the very bottom of the range at one time, stress, crappy diet, terrible relationship, lack of sleep, etc. over the course of 5 years of correcting all of these things, regular bloodwork, addressing my insulin resistance and bringing up mineral deficiencies, I raised it almost 600 points. The difference in my life was night and day.
@@TheJackOfAllTrades777 Lack of sleep is a BIG one from what I hear. As well as excess body fat. (Which causes a feedback look of estrogenic compounds that basically render what testosterone one does have inert)
They did a study with Mongolian gerbils that increased their testosterone, the gerbils just cuddled more. Study conducted by neuroscientists at Emory University.
Can you do an episode on estrogen and the concept of femininity too? I think it would be really interesting to see the myths surrounding femininity too.
@@Shadow.behind.mountains he hates women. Or “females” as he calls them. Ever since he learned about sunning his balls in that Andrew Tate video, he’s been acting very strange
"The problem is the frequency with which we reward aggression." Such a good wrap-up line! Too often we are willing to turn a blind eye to undesirable tactics and methods as long as the people using them are on "our side" of an issue. But in doing so, we are not only rewarding those bad behaviors, but encouraging the "other side" to use the same tactics in order to "win". This turns into a feedback loop that sends our society into a downward spiral of ferocity and chaos.
I was wondering what was meant with "rewarding aggression", because I thought that was not the case. But now that I read your "as long as the people using them are on our side", so many examples come into my head.
People also see examples of aggression being rewarded by the people around the aggressor, like romcoms and the “wow sadistic killers/abusers are so hot” mindset, or aggression that simply pays off in aggressive environment. Like this hood or prison or something, idk.
As someone who has experimented with PEDs, testosterone really just heightens whatever qualities you normally have. If you already have a little confidence, you’ll have more confidence. If you’re a little aggressive, you’ll be more aggressive. You’ll have a higher drive to succeed, but something I’ve noticed for myself is a strong drop in empathy. I’m already kind of a shithead and test kind of extrapolates that.
Yeah, I guess that we could narrow down testosterone effects to higher drive and competition for status. I guess empathy must be rather low for someone to be competitive, that'd be my reasoning behind the last effect you mentioned
Mad props to you for your comment and identifying you're already a "bit of a shithead" It takes a wise person to reflect on what one truly is, it takes an even wiser person to make an effort to change for the better.
That's wild. This reinforces my opinion that I should probably unlearn some aggressive habits I learned growing up before seeking T therapy. I'm already kind of a cunt to deal with at 380 (whatever the blood measure is), I'd probably be in jail at the normal 700 or so 😅 Also, *exacerbates
But thats not what her argued for is it? The ultimatum study he used is set up to show that testosteron increases the behaviour benefited by the system in terms of status... no?
@@nikoleo2000 ok fair - I should have been more specific: attributing human behaviour to a singular chemical (or vice versa, attributing a chemical to a specific behaviour) is naively simplistic and potentially harmful
@@5hydroxyT thats definitely better, but sti incorrect, since the influence that said chemical has on that specific behaviour its irrefutable, specially if you consider that is way more predominant in male than female
You know what hormone does correlate strongly with aggression, cortisol. Increased cortisol levels are detected in all hyper aggressive individuals be they male or female, when combined with high volitility social groups it nearly always leads to increased aggression.
SISSYphus55 once again tries to horde all the poon for himself by convincing you testosterone isn’t important while he sells you male skincare. Don’t fall for it!!
what point did i miss? he didnt argue against the importance of testosteron in anyway no? Or are there redpill ideas about testosteron that he debunked?
@@deathbycognitivedissonance5036 you can deconstruct and examine whatever worldview you want. He’s talked about feminists on this channel before. Some worldviews are just more ridiculous than others.
The animation may be unconventional, however we find this informative in more ways than one. We would look forward to more content similar to this on this channel. May God bless you all.
2:40 Vasopressin is more responsible for aggression than testosterone is in animals, this goes for people, too, along with the social factors you've laid out in this video. Good video, informing as always.
@@bulletsizednuke1100 "The activity of the vasopressin appears linked to the serotonin system providing a mechanism for enhancing and suppressing aggressive behaviour." Edit: another one to add: "In turn, the effects of social experiences may be mediated by neuropeptides,".
I'm pretty chill but ever since working out I feel all the testosterone side effects and im still the same but being angry feels more intense but I also feel happier in general it amplifies whats already there
Testosterone levels drop heavily in the hours/days after exercise by the way, its absorbed by muscle. The drop lasts around 2 days. That drop in test can cause irritability and anger, while your happiness is likely due to dopamine and seratonin release which exercise boosts
Sapolsky is one of my favorite non-fiction writers. He can effortlessly sum up complex topics while keeping the reader entertained and intrigued without losing the quality and specificity of the information. A genuine Biology rockstar.
Honestly one of the most interesting videos I've seen on testosterone and aggression. It just reinforces the idea for me that the way we socialise boys is really flawed and leads to most of the bad outcomes we see. A lot of guys around me were socialised to "Never take any disrespect" and you can see that on nights out where a little faux pas from a stranger turns into a fight. Fragile egos + the male tendency to fight to preserve status is dangerous as fuck I'm not even safe from it, when someone steps to me the idea of being seen as a pussy fills my mind and I cant stand it. Luckily I like having money and employment more than fighting people.
"I like having money and employment more than fighting people" That's the testosterone doing its work and telling you employment preserves your status more than winning a fight ;)
@Mateusz Misztela the cult of death draws in many with their promises of honor. Personally I don't live my life trying to be a passing memory of a dead honourable man. Honor and glory is how you convince young men to throw their or others lives away .
Would be interesting to see similar video for estrogen. The way that our social contexts give inputs to our minds which give input to our bodies (which then give inputs back to the mind) is fascinating.
i personally think men having slightly higher than average estrogen is not a bad thing, and can make them more attractive. but for females having high estrogen is bad. in my experience, high e women (i’m guessing them as high e based on physical traits) are too mentally unstable, irrational, overly emotional. i have heard about women taking e for whatever reason, and getting mental illnesses they didn’t have before, that stopped once they finished taking the estrogen.
When depressed, your mind will cling to what normally may make you depressed, and indicate that as the cause. Hormones of any kind do seem like an amplifier of how ever your cognition already functioned. Since starting testosterone treatment, I seriously struggle to think of any way it's affected my mind, and it's been at least two years since. I can't even say with any confidence if my sex drive has changed. For whatever that anecdote may be worth, even if it's just interesting.
That first point you made is everything. What’s scary is that if you’re depressed/anxious and you spend a lot of time on the internet, the algorithms will be tailored to what grabs your attention, and it could end up filling your recommended with stuff that’s keeping you in that rough mental space
@@zekiel2574 very true. I recently saw a clip of Bo Burnham saying the attention of people is the next frontier for colonization and profit. A colonization of the mind to fill with engagement and advertisements.
Thats fascinating. As a trans guy, i find hormones so interesting. In my experience, T has changed my behavior ways that i didn’t expect. I thought I would become angrier, but I just have more… simple emotions if that makes sense.
It would be great if you did a video like this for dopamine. Self help is filled to the brim with "dopamine detox" stuff and most don't seem to truly understand what dopamine does and how it has a complex functionally in the brain. It isn't just the "feel good juice".
You are nissing the point. Addiction is the thing people are trying to fix. When you do activities that overload or give a heightened dopamine hit, it ruins your reward system. And withdrawing from it can be harsh. So the idea is to moderate activities that arent vital to a healthy use of that system so that you can still function and feel good when you achieve good thing and not just feel rewarded for scrolling through tons of memes.
@@PinkBunnyCorporation That is not what is said in a ton of detox videos. Addiction is more than just dopamine. It's useless to withdraw yourself from an activity if you don't solve the issue(s) that is casing you to pursue addiction in the first place, something that can be almost to outright impossible. Dopamine detox stuff that I have seen makes tons of promises of "taking the control of your life back" and then proceed to give a ton of inaccurate, incomplete, or wrong information about dopamine and how the brain works. I say that dopamine isn't a "feel good juice" because that is what most of these type of videos treat it to be. Dopamine is a small fraction of the addiction equation, and things like psychological, societal, and other types of causes are barely, if at all, mentioned. Also the fact a lot of the videos don't really mention addiction or talk about more generic life stuff, like focus and motivation (in fact motivation is #1 topic of dopamine detox), shows that people making these type of videos are rarely aware, concerned, or didn't consider addiction as part of the "detox" program.
It’s a tough lonely world, and people look for help in some strange places. I get a lot of satisfaction from weightlifting, martial arts, cold water immersion and meditation. I also read as much philosophy as possible, which led me to this channel. Focus on your purpose and resist the trap of vanity.
For me, what matters most is that I protect the things I love, the people I love, and protect my lifestyle and inspire and empower others around me. no amount of hormone imbalance will make me loose touch of this!
Wow, that last line really hit me hard. Such a poignant observation. I grew up in a very male-dominated misogynistic culture in a traditional Baptist family. When I was 20, I did the "right thing" and got engaged to a man from our church. Long story short, he was abus!ve and an all around brute. But he held the beliefs that my parents did and they liked that. He disapproved of me getting a higher education. He ridiculed me because I held a managerial position at my retail job, since a woman's place is in the home raising children, and "they are too emotional to hold any positions of power." I have always wanted kids, but if I had to leave behind my dreams of also being a teacher because me working was "against God's will" I would lose a big part of myself. Thankfully, I saw the light and dumped the loser and went no contact with my family. I realized that I would never get anywhere in life by following what they wanted me to. If I did was expected of me, I could never truly be myself and that was no way to live. You're absolutely right that these behaviors are encouraged and it has nothing to do with hormones or nature, but a culture that encourages this hierarchy.
I don’t think we live in a culture that promotes patriarchal hierarchies or misogyny at all. I think it’s a baseless claim that is taken as an axiom, an axiom which does nothing but generate bitterness between men and women. Look at Sweden. The government in Sweden did everything they could to make the country as egalitarian as possible. Yet, you have fewer women in positions of authority in male dominated fields there. Why? Because when you minimise the cultural differences between men and women, you maximise the biological differences. Your anecdote doesn’t prove anything other than: you met a terrible man that you were forced to have a relationship with.
@@rentalsnake6542 I wasn't trying to remark on American culture as a whole but rather the particular culture of the weird sect of religion that I grew up with and how it can produce toxic masculinity. Or really, just any kind of religious belief or belief in general that tells men that they have to act a certain way. And then, the men in turn using their biological makeup (and/or their divine authority) as an excuse to do so. I could especially see how men like my ex who are already raised to believe they are God's gift to the world because they exist can fall into dangerous methodologies.
@@rentalsnake6542 Her point wasn’t about society in general, just the society she grew up in. Also, you’re the one making a sweeping generalisation based on one government and country.
As someone who literally injected huge amounts of Testosterone to himself, it really doesn't do anything other than reducing cortisol in the body, i would get better erections on ADHD pills(Ritalin) rather than testosterone. It stopped giving it's antidepressant effect at the second injection for me. So what really motivation and being a man is I think more so to do with your Dopamine levels rather than having high Testosterone or they're the same.
My favourite Sapolskyism on this topic is his suggestion that if you juiced a bunch of Buddhist monks on T, they'd run amok performing random acts of kindness trying to outdo each other
I love your animation, it strikes such a good balance between keeping me involved/informed and giving me enough space to ponder the subject. Some channels can be a bit much in the visual information they try to convey and you loose the message. Yours is quite calm but humorous within loosing the topic.
Sisyphus, thank you so much for your uploads, they really helped me through a time where I couldn’t find meaning or purpose in life, your videos are really better than therapy, they’re genuine and comforting :)
As a guy who just started on testosterone a few months ago the main effects to me have been that 1. My acne got far worse than it has ever been before which has tended to lower my confidence 2. I cant cry unless the emotions get to a point where it’s the only thing I feel 3. I feel like I don’t feel all the emotions that other people around me are feeling and it’s like I’m faking it a lot of the time. This is just my experience so far but I feel like as a person who’s levels of testosterone are being gradually increased overtime I haven’t gotten to a point where I’ve become more aggressive or competitive in my personality. Anyway, I’ve been loving the videos, keep up the good work :)
you def should see a counselor if your emotions (especially the crying thing) weren’t like this before T. The acne is a normal side effect but i wouldn’t say that not being able to cry instantly is due to testosterone (for example as an amab who never took testosterone i can’t cry unless the emotion is very intense as well) but if not being able to cry just started after t then it can be related to something else (which is why i suggested counseling/therapy)
Trans woman here, yeah #2 was such a big thing for me as a teen. I recently have been revisiting my playlist of music I used to use to make myself cry when I needed help with that. Now those songs just make me feel calm and a lil melancholy. I definitely do not miss anything from T except maybe how I had more energy. Hopefully it's treating you nicely! I always wonder how T feels for guys
@@cosmicdot. I'm not sure if they're trans, but it isn't really a choice how you feel right? I mean, I wouldn't transition towards being a woman, even if I was passing and it made things "easier." It wouldn't feel right.
That actually explains a lot, many people will tell you that bodybuilders are some of the nicest people you’ll meet and there not complete assholes. Also the socially awkward men in the manosphere are just gonna become more socially awkward because of the testosterone boosts.
@@cedar4539 or killing themselves, most of them really need therapy to address the underlying issues but because of the expenses of it they turn to the manosphere.
I DONT know how welcome I am here, but I am female to male transsex , and I’ve been on it for 4 years. Before I went on hormones, I had horrible anger problems and aggression issues. After being on testosterone for a while, I am so much less aggressive and have less anger issues. This is just an anecdote. But testosterone made me much calmer, and less angry. This supersedes an initial notion society has that testosterone makes one violent. I would love in a fair, logical, and calm environment, love to share all of the personal anecdotes of transition and what they might mean about males and females. A lot of biological sex is from hormones, so taking cross sex hormones can drastically affect the brain. I have personally lived on both sides of the fence, and I feel like my anecdotes could be helpful. There’s a lot of changes and differences between males and females, and transition has taught me hormones are a HUGE factor, bigger than most people realize.
The brain is weird. Everyone else can have caffeine, but I clock out after a cup of coffee. There is no real consistency in how our brains take things.
@@jeffoneto278xd yeah but it's not really an opposition though. Having more test will also get you more estrogen. Estrogen might be "female" but it plays an important role in males as well. Meanwhile cortisol behaves much more like an opposition to testosterone. I can't recall when and where i read this. But there it was explained better. About how it's a common fallacy to see estrogen as the opposition
I would say to also take into account that it's not just rewarding aggression which causes it. Instantly pre-judging a man and treating him as an agressive entity even when he doesn't initially come across as one reinforces the idea in his head that agressive is all he ever is and all he will ever amount to. That, in turn, makes him agressive because it's dominating his self image
Biologically speaking, man have way more tendency of becoming agressive for a evolutionary factor, thats how literally they are constructed for, and taking in consideration that men have way more testosterone than woman, saying it doesn't create agressiveness seems very nonsensical
Testosterone is overhyped. Fixing low testosterone is a good thing. But neurotic men will quickly blame their lack of energy or confidence on lack of testosterone. Mine was perfectly average. I thought I'd feel like superman running a steroid cycle of 5 times my natural production but it hasn't made much difference at all! I still get tired, I still experience lack of motivation sometimes, it's still possible to be underrecovered from a hard workout. I did gain good amounts of muscle and beard hair seems 10-15% thicker and sturdier. Not because my steroids suck or bad genetics, just because test won't fix inherent drawbacks of having a body and living life on planet earth.
TLDR: If you want the magic T-pills to solve your confidence/anxiety problems, you will be disappointed by your anxious/non-confident behaviours being cemented instead of being replaced(unless placebo effect kicks in). If you want a better life, go to therapy - to get in touch with your emotions, learn to establish boundaries and develop healthy habits. Make sure to keep expectations low and compare yourself exclusively to your pre-therapy self.
@@kiddkuru le very smart! Didnt realise you guys were still kicking around. Therapy doesnt work unless you are being honest and truly introspective. Your statement clearly shows that you are neither.
These short essay videos are always a delight and a valuable point of reference to research further. I was researching DHT and I came accross your video. This was brilliant! Thank you and keep the good work.
Curious if you argued the same thing as Sapolsky before watching, happy to see you quote this brilliant dude. 'Behave' is a great book for anyone nerdy enough to want to dive deeply into human behaviour and it's mechanisms
Its crazy coming across the big claims of decreasing testosterone being due to people being weak etc, the major cause is very simply higher fat % in populations. Fat aromatises test into oestrogen, its well understood. This is a very helpful top level video, test has a way worse reputation than it should
@@susheyfish yeah no shit, did I say "everyone with low testosterone is fat"?? We're talking about populations ie statistics, and it simply is a principle component there. Just as much as low sleep and lack of exercise, unsaturated fats, gut bacteria and so on. Of these higher fat IS a direct factor in test conversion.
@@AquaticSkipper That's clearly what you were trying to insinuate with your initial statement though. I however agree with your second statement. It's a problem with many different variables to account for and singling one out or claiming it is the cause, would be an oversimplification.
fat and lack of physical work is has to be a lot of it of course those go hand in hand. that’s going to happen with more abundant resources so it has to be counteracted somehow, it does seem like there’s some powerful people trying to prevent that from happening
Thanks, that explains a lot. Some years back I got a blood test done for my hormone levels and my doctor said my testosterone was double the average and so was concerned. I have anxiety about my decision making ability because I often act before thinking, leading to things exploding in my face. I learn from my dumb experiences, but it hurts every time. I'm also always on edge, finding ways to compete and win against others to support my constantly crumbling self esteem and perfectionism. Unfortunately, while I have an amazing beard, I'm not at all muscular and was only even slightly muscular when I played basketball, but it diapeared when I stopped, killing my expectations. I really connected with what you said about difficulty reading people. This always keeps me on edge and makes it harder to trust people. Originally my family thought it was autism until I got tested and they said I didn't have it, but they didn't know what was wrong with me. I wonder if testosterone levels could be a part of it. Anyways, I totally agree. I don't think testosterone will make you any better exactly, just more likely to do stupid, story worthy shit.
One area I think you missed is the physical aspect. The Manosphere's obsession with physical traits like rugged facial hair and musculature is very much tied to that same flawed preconceptions and the pseudoscience around hormones. Yes, testosterone plays a big role in men being men, facial hair, muscles and all that; but only in balance and that includes in balance with other hormones like Estrogen ... but you don't hear these guys talking about that.
That’s a big thing people forget. There always is a balance in play no matter the more pronounced hormone and too much of something is never good. Too much oestrogen, you’ll ruin your bones, too much testosterone, you’ll increase risk of cancer and likely be sterile. Both play a significant part in every human being and what is usually attributed to testosterone I.e masculine traits is more due to the careful balancing act of both hormones than just testosterone.
Meh, most of those guys are just ugly slavic men coping with their moai like faces and baldness. Generally everyone in those circles seems to think ugliness = more manly which is pretty funny tbh.
Each man has his baseline hormone levels. You want to increase test for anabolic and other various effects while keeping estrogen low by suppressing the aromatisation of exogenous test
Coz there is no need to talk about estrogens in male body. There is no lack of estrogens in modern men. You talk about balance, but exactly more testosterone is the balance most modern men need. Unless you are on extreme diet or are taking special medication to tank your estrogens, there is no need to even think about it. Hell, if you have too much testosterone, your body will naturally burn it down to estrogens. So no, there is no need to talk about it lol.
@@lanagievski1540 Majority of men already have enough estrogen. What they lack is testoterone. And that's why people talk about it. No need to talk about estrogen, coz its plenty enough.
@@alexforce9 He could have high testosterone levels but at the same time a diet so shitty and an exercise regimen so lacking that no natural metabolism could hold the fatness back
So in summary, testosterone has little to do with "masculinity" rather it promotes whatever tendencies an individual may already have or what is required in that specific circumstance.
it still has plenty to do with physical masculine features. muscle mass, body hair growth and male pattern baldness, deeper voice are all correlated with higher testosterone
As a trans man who as been on HRT with Testosterone for a while now, this what I observed ever since I started getting hormone shots. My aggression didn’t rise, even tho beforehand I had a history with anger issues, mainly I assume that is bc I already had the tools and methods to work around rising anger and frustration prior to starting testosterone. In my current most long lasting relationship, me and my partner never had a full on fight simply bc we both now how to manage upcoming anger. I also didn’t notice a drop in empathy, however I am much less likely to cry then I was before. What I did notice tho, that it catapulted me right into a quarter life crisis, I suddenly feel the constant need to prove myself academically and financially, making me feel much more down when I feel like I didn’t do something to my fullest potential. I also struggle to play competitive games with my friends like I used to, becoming an insanely sore loser, every time someone turns out to be better then me. … I’m still trying to figure out how to deal with that.
I like how this all feels like a school lesson. People are talking about the subject, everybody is thinking, and there are many student's. This is the reason why I love new era of educational content
@@shakya00 Well apparently both are true in different cultural and developmental contexts ;) (although conflating "real man", whatever that means, and high T is a bit reductive of course)
@@shakya00 not sure how that could be interpreted as “female”, but yeah, i never really saw aggressive and selfish men as masculine. i’ve associated that with immaturity or insecurity. but let me also make it clear that i understand that trying to describe a “real man” is pointless anyway.
@@ThunderHOWL16 It's just gender stereotyping, really. Men, especially boys, have an idea of "real men" being "tough" first and foremost, which can easily be conflated with aggression and such. Women tend to focus more on "gentleman" qualities, like politeness, caring, etc., because that's what they want out of a man. A brutish man might treat her like a brute. Most women don't want that. Men, and especially boys, focus on the "toughness" aspect because from the "traditional male perspective," they're the one that has to stand up, and possibly die for, their loved ones and what they believe in. Being a "man" (from the male perspective) is less about how gentle you are, and more about resilience and standing by your principles. Your "fighting spirit" more or less. (And this "fighting spirit" obviously isn't limited to physical fighting. This is where many immature men or boys start conflating "toughness" with being brutish.) Just a guess as to why girls and boys tend to have a completely different view on what a "real man" is.
as a steroid user i can say the biggest mental changes from taking test are sleep quality, and making effort feel good while your doing it not just after.
see, i always thought i had bad testosterone receptors or just low testosterone, -or both i wonder if there is a link to the fact I just don't enjoy sports. I started boxing recently and I know logically it is good for my body so I do it and feel great about taking care of my body but when people ask me if I enjoy it, I feel quite awkward answering honestly.My sleep quality's always been good tho
with preservation also comes comfort through relied upon self-made consistency, but i like your idea. I think its a battle between wanting to increase what you have to the idealized level (produced by self, ads, friends, products, whatever you allow yourself to believe), and returning to a sense of having your bearings and knowing what you're going to try to do next. both basically grounded in motivation to be, whether through remaining, establishing, or shaping your sense of standing for optimal self preservation, give or take ambition to develop
*It is perhaps rather that the kind of primal, crude, aggressive masculinity is what is rewarded in today's dating and professional landscapes, as you mentioned.* Actually, the trend is reversed. Society promotes prosocial, unadventurous, politically correct behavior. The reality society is constructed on top of rewards aggression and force because those things are inherently useful for getting what you want out of life and always have been. For example, acting like an effeminate homosexual with social anxiety can probably buy you a lot of leeway in certain circles and generally will get you treated nicer due to being seen as less threatening and will lead to you being seen as a more moral individual, it doesn't change the fact that women will find you inherently repulsive. Also, I object to calling it "masculinity" because it's not even immutable to men it's just that men seem to be the only people able to exhibit these traits consistently.
About a month and a half ago I had really sudden increase in testosterone that lasted all the way until a few weeks ago. Every single night I was plagued with gory nightmares and during the day I was quite rude apparently. I’m not my doctor or anything but I do know that the amount of testosterone I was producing was abnormally high. Too much of anything will harm you, plain and simple!
Maybe the hormonal imbalance got you like that, women get mood swings in mensturation and menopause and teenagers in general in puberty because of the hormonal changes
Great video man, loved it. It's so crazy how certain behaviors can become socially contagious and perpetuate pre held beliefs. Keep up the good work my friend, that boulder won't carry itself! 🤗👊🏼🙌🏼
did you read the Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck? It clearly states to still have empathy because the goal is not to be a sociopath, but to only direct your emotions to things that you can control.
Honestly there have been a lot of videos talking about testosterone recently from both ends of the spectrum and I really didn't think this video was going to be saying anything new in the first half. But that study introduced in the end is very interesting. I'd love to see if there were replications of the findings. Having testosterone be a hormone that acts to sustain status could be really interesting, especially in the conversation about the right promoting hierarchies and using subversive means to proliferate those hierarchies. It would be wild if their obsession with testosterone is for this exact reason of punching down to maintain the rule they have established.
The only misconception that I know of is that its bad (like in the soy-boy memes). Women don’t aim to have high-estrogen like how men aim to have high-testosterone. In fact, having too much estrogen is a significant concern for some women. Rarely do you find men worrying about having too much testosterone.
@@onewholovesvenison5335 The soyboy memes are about how excess consumption of a food very high in phytoestrogens (soy) is harmful to males. It leads to osteoporosis and obesity.
Never expected to see you talking about Sapolsky, I highly recommend his behavioural biology 101 on youtube here for anyone more interested in him. A great mind
@@bitcoinzoomer9994 No, medical studies demonstrate the exact opposite. You're sounding like the player at 10:17 who acts overly aggressive because he thinks he got dosed with testosterone but got none.
I was wondering when I saw this come up if you'd mention Sapolsky. That section on testosterone and how socio-cultural particularities shape its effects is one of the most memorable things I took away from his fist-thick book.
In australian schools its common to be taught that testosterone doesnt make men more aggressive, but it makes men protect status. A study that is used as an example to showcase this goes as follows; The testosterone levels of soccer fans is tested before and after a stadium game. The fans who's team lost had higher levels of testosterone. It was implied that this was the case because there status was threatened (as they were supporting losers).
I mean basically yeah lol. Who do you want to give your respect to, a douchebag who randomly punched someone on his way through the door or the guy who was holding the door for everyone?
Good information. It’s also important to note that hormones have a relationship with other hormones and messing with the balance (through supplements) can result in unexpected results. For example, excess testosterone can be turned into estrogens and make you grow breasts.
Mindset > Testosterone but honestly testosterone is very important for health but its only a helper(a great one at that) whatever you think and are goal focused on will happen as long as you try, not based on your ngl levels
Estrogen makes one content with where they are, think Diogenes vs Alexander, or Musashi vs Kojiro. Maybe like Hercules vs Jesus, estrogen makes you receptive to enjoying things happening to you while Testosterone makes you enjoy doing things
@@sethgaston8347 the most manly and monkey man, full of testosterone trying to teach people on how estrogen works. Ends up shitting right out of his mouth while broadcasting how little his brain works. Testosterone and estrogen don’t make you enjoy doing/enjoy things being done to you, what fucking pseudoscience.
There's a huge misunderstanding here; High testosterone increases an individuals *capacity* for aggression. It does *not* make them *more* aggressive. A man with a great capacity for aggression and violence, who chooses to keep it sheathed outside of dire circumstances, is a much more desirable protector than a man with a lower capacity for aggression but easily susceptible to becoming violent.
@@gur262 Not true. If someone is taught to fight (which increases their capacity for aggression by increasing their confidence in that area, anyway) but is somehow not very aggressive, in dire circumstances they will be much more hesitant and may make some fatal choices as a result. This hypothetical person who is trained to fight but lacks much capacity for aggression/violence will always lose in a real fight to someone who has a much greater capacity for violence by having the willingness to jump them in the street with a baseball bat. People with a capacity for aggression/violence naturally have a higher quality of awareness.
I used to be a high testosterone kid growing up but that was gone the more i put my body through abuse because that whole: "Testosterone makes effort feel good" was too addicting and I burnt my body out by not resting adequately. If i could go back, I would be doing psalm 23: doing nothing 24/7 so God can do everything for me 24/7.
@@albinosh4dow sloth as in the animal who physically can't go fast enough and is inherently slow even if it's life was in danger? No. I am not a sloth. Nor am I lazy. Lazy means you do what you want and you neglect things that are tedious or boring yet important. If you put a ton of pot in front of me I won't ever touch it until God controls me to smoke it or even touch it. God controls me 24/7. Not... God leads me to the "green grass" and then I tell God "I got it from here, boss" no. I don't do that. Bro when I am in the bathroom I do nothing and I finish and leave the bathroom while doing nothing. I go to sleep and in my dreams I'm still doing nothing. I am not lazy. I am obedient to the scripture. I shall not want. And guess what? When I want to really badly take a shit... I don't move for shit bro. God controls me 24/7 and I encourage you to give it a chance so you can get answers to what you need to know.
@@snackler6102 yeah that's not only stupid but goes against the entire bible. "Do shit you need to do and don't worry about shit you can't." Yeah what do I need to do? Obey God or say "thanks God for leading me to this and now I can take over now"? Remember that in the march that happened in the desert with Moses and the Tabernacle with the Noah ark in the middle, right? The main logic was God is the center of your life because that's why the symbolic and physical presence of God (aka the temple in the middle of the march where everyone was walking to the promise land after fleeing Egypt aka exodus) was in the middle. You need God and you are nothing without God. Do what you need to do? Which is what? Pray with flower language? Never put God to the test with good intentions so you can know what God wants from you? Psalm 23? Idk bro. But I've been doing nothing 24/7 for 3 solid years and God has been controlling me 24/7. I am the rock. I am the top G. And Jesus Christ was just a big phony.
Listen, nobody demonstrates this like trans guys. Like, a lot of us go on T and can tell you: our emotions often change in a similar way with differing levels of intensity. Like, we still experience happiness, sadness, anger. Anger occurring slightly more often. But they’re less complex. Like before I could feel happy-sad, or angry-sad, now its just anger or just sad, etc. A few cry less (maybe because our dysphoria is getting easier to handle lmao) but other than that its not enormously drastic most of the time. Oh, and extreme horniness, apologies for the TMI. But thats partially because we’re going through a second puberty haha
The crying is usually because it's physically harder, the tear ducts that secrete tears get smaller under a high concentration of testosterone in the blood
The last part is so true. Even as a trans women who's waffled on the amount of anti-androgens I'm taking at any given time, it's insane how much testosterone impacts your sexuality on both a psychological and physical level. I love to give shit to straight men for having no taste but testosterone really is just like that.
@@Ciirulean i am also a trans woman and i havent noticed the shift in sexuality (or romanticism for that matter), i was attracted to women before hrt and still am, I was fortunate to not have started male puberty by the time i started puberty blockers and E2 so ig that might make a difference
@@fixyourlag701 Glad to hear you were able to prevent having to deal w/ male puberty to begin with! By "sexuality" I was referring more to the "experience" of sexual attraction rather than who you find attractive; you'll notice there's a pretty drastic shift between porn produced by men and women, and hormones play a large role in this.
@@cedar4539 Maybe you have some sort of an hormonal imbalance? These people have these symptoms because of taking hormones and, thus kinda of starting a new puberty like OP said
You show the are of not giving a fuck. I think that is a really good book about caring about the right things in life and about not giving a fuck about things that don't matter.
Hey Sisyphus, I think that this video could have used some more sources, and a little more research. Where this was most obvious to me was when you were talking about aggression associated with administering testosterone. I think you need to spend a little more time researching the subject. Be careful of citing studies done in the 70s as well. The field of endocrinology and in general androgenic drug research has advanced MUCH farther since then and our understanding of these drugs has as well. There is still much to learn about the effects of testosterone and the role it is playing in our psychology. Congruently, estrogen plays an important role too. We also operate at a range of test in our blood (estrogen too) and test level fluctuates throughout the day for everyone. And the sentiment of test being a motivator is true in some regard, however too much or too little can have extreme short term and long term effects. I think this is highlighted in newer dementia research. Some patients are treated with synthetic oestrogen to restore brain functionality. The mechanism in which the degeneration of the brain happened could possibly be due to too much or too little test as you grew older, which can be caused from certain genetic or environmental genetic triggering. Researchers are showing there is a real hormonal component to dementia. However, this isn't the sole cause as there are other genetic components leading to brain degeneration. My point is that test is one of the most important chemicals our body relies on for any hormonal biomechanism, and this complexity and importance is lost when reducing it to "motivation". Having a healthy level of test isn't just motivational, it helps you live longer, its key to cognitive retention, and many more biomechanisms are driven from Test metabolites (like estrogen and oestrogen). Love your videos, keep up the good work!
Hi Brad, Thank you for the polite response. There is no doubt that testosterone and aggression hold a relationship. Even Sapolsky notes that an extreme level of testosterone in the form of injections consistently causes aggression (a simple example is that of bodybuilders who use steroids with testosterone, however he suggests there may be a selection bias in that these bodybuilders tend to be socially pre-disposed to a culture of aggression). The purpose of this video was instead to highlight the multifaceted relationship between testosterone and human behaviour. Aside from motivation, I also highlight T's effects on social cognition and I'm sure I could make a video hours long highlighting many of the other interesting effects, such as the dementia research that you have highlighted as well as its role in sexual dimorphism, stress, other forms of cognition and health. I do agree that I should have added a short sentence that cautions people from seeing testosterone as solely motivational in its effects and I'll try to keep this in mind in the future. Regarding the 1977 study that looks at monkey hierarchies, I agree that relying on ancient research such as this is somewhat flawed. However, I struggled to find any future research that has refined these results aside from a review in 2006 (Behavioural and physiological aspects of stress and aggression in nonhuman primates 2006, Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews) and a study on inmates and antisocial behaviour in 2007 (Role of sex hormone-binding globulin in the relationship between sex hormones and antisocial and aggressive personality in inmates 2007, Psychiatry Research). which did not look at status. If somebody replicates these findings and finds something else (eg. low status monkeys become aggressive to others, indiscriminate of status) then relying on this study would, as you have correctly noted, be insufficient if not disingenuous. Despite many of the other comments, this video is not some sort of anti-testosterone propaganda. Testosterone is a naturally occurring hormone in the body so that would be a weird angle to take. If anything, this is a direct summary of Robert Sapolsky's section on testosterone with the exact sources he has cited (aside from the trolley problem study). He too would likely agree that the complexities of T as a hormonal bio-mechanism is important to highlight. But, importantly, the pop-science treatment of testosterone has championed it as justification for many of antisocial markers found in masculine behaviour, which both Sapolsky and I would agree is a cop out when it comes to taking responsibility. This is why the title is "The Myth of Testosterone" and not "Everything You Need To Know About Testosterone". Thank you for your support and insight!
@@Sisyphus55 loved the follow up! I’m working on my PhD in biomedical engineering right now so I follow a lot of the research in endocrinology and hormone bio mechanisms. I understand you have to get people to click on the video hence the title. I guess Im biased towards specific titles that reference a mechanism/research in the paper. Where this is more of an exploration of Ts role and addressing some assumptions people make. If you have an issue finding sources, try scihub, it unlocks all the paywalls on these journals. (If you aren’t already using it)
Talking by experience, i used to have 300< levels of testosterone. After i started TRT treatment, EVERYTHING changed. Its like starting a virtuous circle. If you have the chance to do it, DO IT!
absolutely can attest to this as a trans guy! Before T, i was super depressed, i felt bloated and constantly tired, and very insecure about myself because my body was different than other guys- but i started T gel and all of a sudden i felt like something just finally clicked and i felt human, it was life changing. T gel is my zoloft (at least in terms of its mood-stabilizing effect) everyone has a different level that works for them.
I'm a trans girl, but hello fellow trans person. I unfortunately haven't had any hormone changes so don't have anything useful to say about this subject
So the placebo effect is stacked on top of whatever chemical is being tested. Psychology is really bizarre; I've seen studies where placebo said to be PEDs improve physical performance. I wonder if there's anything to gleam from anti-placebo groups, i.e. a test group which thinks they are getting a compound that does the opposite of the believed effect (in this case estrogen).
Click here tiege.com/sisyphus55nov to get 30% off your first Tiege Hanley box plus a FREE gift! Let me know what gift you chose in the comments below!
You ruined opportunity for an excellent joke of placing here testosterone booster supplements ad instead
Robert Sapolsky, that name sounds familiar... he's the guy who did the Stanford lecture series on human behavioral biology right?
ah, worst thing you could've done was bring Dr. Berg into it m8.
I was humouring your angle until that
This ad is actually super funny because the founder of tiege Hanley is very much one of those manosphere gurus
An ad trying to sell me products for male skin care that will make my skin “practically glow” - in the middle of a video on the scientific basis of how testosterone works in the brain to promote “status-retaining behavior” = greatest troll of all time. Fine work with that one!
So basically testosterone acts like a motivator, making you want to play the game, whatever that may be at a given time.
That's a great way to summarize it since different games have different rules and motivations for playing and or winning them.
need nutrition and other human things obviously
It is a motivator for “games” or motives which will permit you to maintain status, or maintain a perceived status which is seen as “positive” according to moral and social norms of the context the individual is in.
If the “game” in question doesn’t have some form of reward which will logically help you maintain status (e.g. money, your sports team maintaining their #1 position, being an olympic champion defending his title, even defending the title of best drummer as in Whiplash) then there is no effect testosterone will have on such endeavours. Now dopamine, on the other hand… can make you gamble away tons of money in risky ways, in particular settings, like in a casino or a poker bet. Even though testosterone could probably make you take “less risks” in the same scenario, as it acts to reinforce a tendency to maintain your gains you already have and disregard risk/reward ratios which seem unlikely and unfavourable.
So focused aggression
So the manosphere is ultimately right.
The best way I ever heard it summarized: "Testosterone makes effort feel good." That lines up with my own experience. I was at the very bottom of the range at one time, stress, crappy diet, terrible relationship, lack of sleep, etc. over the course of 5 years of correcting all of these things, regular bloodwork, addressing my insulin resistance and bringing up mineral deficiencies, I raised it almost 600 points. The difference in my life was night and day.
whats your diet?
@@javier.alvarez764 Cigarrettes and tears from betas
@@javier.alvarez764 basically you are what you put into your body. Don't eat the goyslop.
Try trt, u dont even need it from a doctor. Just pin 50mg test e every other day and 50mg of zinc and u will feel amazing
@@TheJackOfAllTrades777 Lack of sleep is a BIG one from what I hear. As well as excess body fat. (Which causes a feedback look of estrogenic compounds that basically render what testosterone one does have inert)
Pro tip, sleep improves everything in your life including testosterone, make sure you all get enough
reading this at 12 am hits different
@@cybr69lol reading this at 3 am even more differently💀
@@kshitiztiwari8227 go to sleep fool
Reading this after skipping sleep for a day hits different
Man why do you gotta tell me this AFTER I completely ruined my pretty-decent sleep schedule
They did a study with Mongolian gerbils that increased their testosterone, the gerbils just cuddled more. Study conducted by neuroscientists at Emory University.
cute
In this essay i will unpack why it is, in fact, extremely manly to tuck the homies into bed and give them a goodnight kiss
Ok and
I’ll be sure to keep that mind for when I become a Mongolian gerbil
Why we derive human conclusions from human studies, not mongolian gerbil studies:
Can you do an episode on estrogen and the concept of femininity too? I think it would be really interesting to see the myths surrounding femininity too.
No
@@RE-gf7lr why tho?
@@Shadow.behind.mountains he hates women. Or “females” as he calls them. Ever since he learned about sunning his balls in that Andrew Tate video, he’s been acting very strange
@@Shadow.behind.mountains woman aren't real
@@arthurius_3022 😮
"The problem is the frequency with which we reward aggression."
Such a good wrap-up line! Too often we are willing to turn a blind eye to undesirable tactics and methods as long as the people using them are on "our side" of an issue. But in doing so, we are not only rewarding those bad behaviors, but encouraging the "other side" to use the same tactics in order to "win". This turns into a feedback loop that sends our society into a downward spiral of ferocity and chaos.
I was wondering what was meant with "rewarding aggression", because I thought that was not the case. But now that I read your "as long as the people using them are on our side", so many examples come into my head.
People also see examples of aggression being rewarded by the people around the aggressor, like romcoms and the “wow sadistic killers/abusers are so hot” mindset, or aggression that simply pays off in aggressive environment. Like this hood or prison or something, idk.
Negative partisanship in politics. Go after the other person insted of making praising your own policies. One is more effective than the other
Funny how a big war full of men with high testosterone endep up being the key to achieve peace
As someone who has experimented with PEDs, testosterone really just heightens whatever qualities you normally have. If you already have a little confidence, you’ll have more confidence. If you’re a little aggressive, you’ll be more aggressive. You’ll have a higher drive to succeed, but something I’ve noticed for myself is a strong drop in empathy. I’m already kind of a shithead and test kind of extrapolates that.
well,maybe thats why men are more violent
Yeah, I guess that we could narrow down testosterone effects to higher drive and competition for status. I guess empathy must be rather low for someone to be competitive, that'd be my reasoning behind the last effect you mentioned
Mad props to you for your comment and identifying you're already a "bit of a shithead"
It takes a wise person to reflect on what one truly is, it takes an even wiser person to make an effort to change for the better.
That's wild. This reinforces my opinion that I should probably unlearn some aggressive habits I learned growing up before seeking T therapy. I'm already kind of a cunt to deal with at 380 (whatever the blood measure is), I'd probably be in jail at the normal 700 or so 😅
Also,
*exacerbates
Sounds awesome
Testosteron reinforces existing behavioural patterns. Very informative
But thats not what her argued for is it? The ultimatum study he used is set up to show that testosteron increases the behaviour benefited by the system in terms of status... no?
@@jonask.9175 Yes, but I think there’s an argument existing behavioral patterns exist within the context of status so it effectively is the same way.
once again we find that reducing human behaviour to a purely chemical phenomenon is naively simplistic and potentially harmful
Though the contrary, in which we assume human being are blank slates that can be shaped however we want can be just as dangerous
You try to position as if it contradicts the status quo, but blank slatism is the status quo
This man doesn't have any idea how much the chemical phenomenon affects human behaviour 🤣
@@nikoleo2000 ok fair - I should have been more specific: attributing human behaviour to a singular chemical (or vice versa, attributing a chemical to a specific behaviour) is naively simplistic and potentially harmful
@@5hydroxyT thats definitely better, but sti incorrect, since the influence that said chemical has on that specific behaviour its irrefutable, specially if you consider that is way more predominant in male than female
You know what hormone does correlate strongly with aggression, cortisol. Increased cortisol levels are detected in all hyper aggressive individuals be they male or female, when combined with high volitility social groups it nearly always leads to increased aggression.
That’s because it’s the stress hormone. When you’re stressed, you’re more likely to lash out aggressively.
@@goomba8170 Which is why building a sense of fear is a staple in any political movement in history.
So that's why I seem to get increasingly aggressive when nervous is because I'm full of cortisol.
SISSYphus55 once again tries to horde all the poon for himself by convincing you testosterone isn’t important while he sells you male skincare. Don’t fall for it!!
Thank you for the warning, “Jreg”! I know I can always trust you!
what point did i miss? he didnt argue against the importance of testosteron in anyway no? Or are there redpill ideas about testosteron that he debunked?
@@jonask.9175 💀💀💀
@@jonask.9175 centrist spotted
@@jonask.9175
the joke, you missed the joke. 🗿
i love sisyphus55 and their deconstruction of the assumptions made and proliferated in the manosphere
Do you feel the same about feminism?
@@deathbycognitivedissonance5036 nah they dont cover that here🤡
Faxx
@@deathbycognitivedissonance5036 you can deconstruct and examine whatever worldview you want. He’s talked about feminists on this channel before. Some worldviews are just more ridiculous than others.
yeah I found sisy55 through the manosphere via Peterson and the algorithm, and he does a great job of telling the truth.
The animation may be unconventional, however we find this informative in more ways than one. We would look forward to more content similar to this on this channel. May God bless you all.
Is this ur first Sisyphus video ?
Who is we? Are you a plural being?
I love the animation.
@@themostdiabolicalhater5986 sophia and the voices
thanks amogus
2:40 Vasopressin is more responsible for aggression than testosterone is in animals, this goes for people, too, along with the social factors you've laid out in this video. Good video, informing as always.
What? For real? How does that work?
@@bulletsizednuke1100 "The activity of the vasopressin appears linked to the serotonin system providing a mechanism for enhancing and suppressing aggressive behaviour."
Edit: another one to add: "In turn, the effects of social experiences may be mediated by neuropeptides,".
Then basically, the fault is vasopressine if my male dog is aggressive with other male dogs, is it not testosterone fault?
I'm pretty chill but ever since working out I feel all the testosterone side effects and im still the same but being angry feels more intense but I also feel happier in general it amplifies whats already there
Testosterone levels drop heavily in the hours/days after exercise by the way, its absorbed by muscle. The drop lasts around 2 days. That drop in test can cause irritability and anger, while your happiness is likely due to dopamine and seratonin release which exercise boosts
@@AquaticSkipper penis is also muscle too ig
@@lui7135 no?
@@lui7135 LOL
@@AquaticSkipper Most people who exercise do so on most days. So I assume the drop is rare.
Sapolsky is one of my favorite non-fiction writers. He can effortlessly sum up complex topics while keeping the reader entertained and intrigued without losing the quality and specificity of the information. A genuine Biology rockstar.
Thanks for giving me a new author to my list
He is a lecturer at Stanford. I recall watching his intro to human behavior biology series (only the first few episodes lol)
@@3oddsocks47 he's one of the most important neurobiologists and etnologists in the world
Read him a lot
As I once heard the wisest of baboons say: "Sapolsky is the unadultetated shit".
Honestly one of the most interesting videos I've seen on testosterone and aggression. It just reinforces the idea for me that the way we socialise boys is really flawed and leads to most of the bad outcomes we see. A lot of guys around me were socialised to "Never take any disrespect" and you can see that on nights out where a little faux pas from a stranger turns into a fight. Fragile egos + the male tendency to fight to preserve status is dangerous as fuck
I'm not even safe from it, when someone steps to me the idea of being seen as a pussy fills my mind and I cant stand it. Luckily I like having money and employment more than fighting people.
"I like having money and employment more than fighting people" That's the testosterone doing its work and telling you employment preserves your status more than winning a fight ;)
@@KarlSnarks at least he made the right choice to not be a barbaric man-child
@@chh066 Oh yeah absolutely
@Mateusz Misztela the cult of death draws in many with their promises of honor. Personally I don't live my life trying to be a passing memory of a dead honourable man.
Honor and glory is how you convince young men to throw their or others lives away .
@Mateusz Misztela also if you think a pub fight is honourable I'd book an appointment with a therapist
Would be interesting to see similar video for estrogen. The way that our social contexts give inputs to our minds which give input to our bodies (which then give inputs back to the mind) is fascinating.
@@cedar4539 Estrogen literally carrying most calcium around in women's bodies: 😔👍
i personally think men having slightly higher than average estrogen is not a bad thing, and can make them more attractive. but for females having high estrogen is bad.
in my experience, high e women (i’m guessing them as high e based on physical traits) are too mentally unstable, irrational, overly emotional.
i have heard about women taking e for whatever reason, and getting mental illnesses they didn’t have before, that stopped once they finished taking the estrogen.
@@emmie599 estrogen creates man boobs
When depressed, your mind will cling to what normally may make you depressed, and indicate that as the cause. Hormones of any kind do seem like an amplifier of how ever your cognition already functioned.
Since starting testosterone treatment, I seriously struggle to think of any way it's affected my mind, and it's been at least two years since. I can't even say with any confidence if my sex drive has changed. For whatever that anecdote may be worth, even if it's just interesting.
Low testosterone is almost always a symptom/ side effect of depression and almost never the cause of it
That first point you made is everything. What’s scary is that if you’re depressed/anxious and you spend a lot of time on the internet, the algorithms will be tailored to what grabs your attention, and it could end up filling your recommended with stuff that’s keeping you in that rough mental space
@@zekiel2574 very true. I recently saw a clip of Bo Burnham saying the attention of people is the next frontier for colonization and profit. A colonization of the mind to fill with engagement and advertisements.
Thats fascinating. As a trans guy, i find hormones so interesting. In my experience, T has changed my behavior ways that i didn’t expect. I thought I would become angrier, but I just have more… simple emotions if that makes sense.
What’s your current weekly dosage and ester?
It would be great if you did a video like this for dopamine. Self help is filled to the brim with "dopamine detox" stuff and most don't seem to truly understand what dopamine does and how it has a complex functionally in the brain. It isn't just the "feel good juice".
You are nissing the point. Addiction is the thing people are trying to fix. When you do activities that overload or give a heightened dopamine hit, it ruins your reward system. And withdrawing from it can be harsh. So the idea is to moderate activities that arent vital to a healthy use of that system so that you can still function and feel good when you achieve good thing and not just feel rewarded for scrolling through tons of memes.
@@PinkBunnyCorporation That is not what is said in a ton of detox videos. Addiction is more than just dopamine. It's useless to withdraw yourself from an activity if you don't solve the issue(s) that is casing you to pursue addiction in the first place, something that can be almost to outright impossible.
Dopamine detox stuff that I have seen makes tons of promises of "taking the control of your life back" and then proceed to give a ton of inaccurate, incomplete, or wrong information about dopamine and how the brain works. I say that dopamine isn't a "feel good juice" because that is what most of these type of videos treat it to be. Dopamine is a small fraction of the addiction equation, and things like psychological, societal, and other types of causes are barely, if at all, mentioned.
Also the fact a lot of the videos don't really mention addiction or talk about more generic life stuff, like focus and motivation (in fact motivation is #1 topic of dopamine detox), shows that people making these type of videos are rarely aware, concerned, or didn't consider addiction as part of the "detox" program.
It’s a tough lonely world, and people look for help in some strange places. I get a lot of satisfaction from weightlifting, martial arts, cold water immersion and meditation. I also read as much philosophy as possible, which led me to this channel. Focus on your purpose and resist the trap of vanity.
For me, what matters most is that I protect the things I love, the people I love, and protect my lifestyle and inspire and empower others around me. no amount of hormone imbalance will make me loose touch of this!
I think this is a great perspective
Wow, that last line really hit me hard. Such a poignant observation. I grew up in a very male-dominated misogynistic culture in a traditional Baptist family. When I was 20, I did the "right thing" and got engaged to a man from our church. Long story short, he was abus!ve and an all around brute. But he held the beliefs that my parents did and they liked that. He disapproved of me getting a higher education. He ridiculed me because I held a managerial position at my retail job, since a woman's place is in the home raising children, and "they are too emotional to hold any positions of power." I have always wanted kids, but if I had to leave behind my dreams of also being a teacher because me working was "against God's will" I would lose a big part of myself. Thankfully, I saw the light and dumped the loser and went no contact with my family. I realized that I would never get anywhere in life by following what they wanted me to. If I did was expected of me, I could never truly be myself and that was no way to live. You're absolutely right that these behaviors are encouraged and it has nothing to do with hormones or nature, but a culture that encourages this hierarchy.
I don’t think we live in a culture that promotes patriarchal hierarchies or misogyny at all. I think it’s a baseless claim that is taken as an axiom, an axiom which does nothing but generate bitterness between men and women.
Look at Sweden. The government in Sweden did everything they could to make the country as egalitarian as possible. Yet, you have fewer women in positions of authority in male dominated fields there. Why? Because when you minimise the cultural differences between men and women, you maximise the biological differences.
Your anecdote doesn’t prove anything other than: you met a terrible man that you were forced to have a relationship with.
@@rentalsnake6542 I wasn't trying to remark on American culture as a whole but rather the particular culture of the weird sect of religion that I grew up with and how it can produce toxic masculinity. Or really, just any kind of religious belief or belief in general that tells men that they have to act a certain way. And then, the men in turn using their biological makeup (and/or their divine authority) as an excuse to do so. I could especially see how men like my ex who are already raised to believe they are God's gift to the world because they exist can fall into dangerous methodologies.
@@rentalsnake6542 you misunderstood the point of her comment.
@@rentalsnake6542 Her point wasn’t about society in general, just the society she grew up in. Also, you’re the one making a sweeping generalisation based on one government and country.
I admire your courage!
As someone who literally injected huge amounts of Testosterone to himself, it really doesn't do anything other than reducing cortisol in the body, i would get better erections on ADHD pills(Ritalin) rather than testosterone. It stopped giving it's antidepressant effect at the second injection for me. So what really motivation and being a man is I think more so to do with your Dopamine levels rather than having high Testosterone or they're the same.
Its fitting that the Zizz pfp is one of the few people here admitting that testosterone isn't everything the manoshpere cracks it up to be. Based
@@alexrogers777 oh yeah didn't even notice that until I tapped it
My favourite Sapolskyism on this topic is his suggestion that if you juiced a bunch of Buddhist monks on T, they'd run amok performing random acts of kindness trying to outdo each other
What's more interesting to me is the effects of not enough estrogen and how that negatively affects your health
everyone, stop what youre doing
another sisyphus 55 banger just dropped
I love your animation, it strikes such a good balance between keeping me involved/informed and giving me enough space to ponder the subject. Some channels can be a bit much in the visual information they try to convey and you loose the message. Yours is quite calm but humorous within loosing the topic.
Sisyphus, thank you so much for your uploads, they really helped me through a time where I couldn’t find meaning or purpose in life, your videos are really better than therapy, they’re genuine and comforting :)
As a guy who just started on testosterone a few months ago the main effects to me have been that 1. My acne got far worse than it has ever been before which has tended to lower my confidence 2. I cant cry unless the emotions get to a point where it’s the only thing I feel 3. I feel like I don’t feel all the emotions that other people around me are feeling and it’s like I’m faking it a lot of the time. This is just my experience so far but I feel like as a person who’s levels of testosterone are being gradually increased overtime I haven’t gotten to a point where I’ve become more aggressive or competitive in my personality. Anyway, I’ve been loving the videos, keep up the good work :)
you def should see a counselor if your emotions (especially the crying thing) weren’t like this before T. The acne is a normal side effect but i wouldn’t say that not being able to cry instantly is due to testosterone (for example as an amab who never took testosterone i can’t cry unless the emotion is very intense as well) but if not being able to cry just started after t then it can be related to something else (which is why i suggested counseling/therapy)
Trans woman here, yeah #2 was such a big thing for me as a teen. I recently have been revisiting my playlist of music I used to use to make myself cry when I needed help with that. Now those songs just make me feel calm and a lil melancholy. I definitely do not miss anything from T except maybe how I had more energy.
Hopefully it's treating you nicely! I always wonder how T feels for guys
Make sure you don't, get too much or your balls will shrivel up
So you were a woman and now transitioning to be a man? Why did you decided to go from easy to hard mode?
@@cosmicdot. I'm not sure if they're trans, but it isn't really a choice how you feel right? I mean, I wouldn't transition towards being a woman, even if I was passing and it made things "easier." It wouldn't feel right.
That actually explains a lot, many people will tell you that bodybuilders are some of the nicest people you’ll meet and there not complete assholes. Also the socially awkward men in the manosphere are just gonna become more socially awkward because of the testosterone boosts.
@@cedar4539 or killing themselves, most of them really need therapy to address the underlying issues but because of the expenses of it they turn to the manosphere.
"skin care isnt really for me"
proceeds to show a clip of himself with amazing skin
Was that really him? 🥵
@@holnrew it was. He’s fine af, not to take away from the quality of his content lol
I saw laugh lines.
I DONT know how welcome I am here, but I am female to male transsex , and I’ve been on it for 4 years. Before I went on hormones, I had horrible anger problems and aggression issues. After being on testosterone for a while, I am so much less aggressive and have less anger issues. This is just an anecdote. But testosterone made me much calmer, and less angry. This supersedes an initial notion society has that testosterone makes one violent. I would love in a fair, logical, and calm environment, love to share all of the personal anecdotes of transition and what they might mean about males and females. A lot of biological sex is from hormones, so taking cross sex hormones can drastically affect the brain.
I have personally lived on both sides of the fence, and I feel like my anecdotes could be helpful. There’s a lot of changes and differences between males and females, and transition has taught me hormones are a HUGE factor, bigger than most people realize.
The brain is weird. Everyone else can have caffeine, but I clock out after a cup of coffee. There is no real consistency in how our brains take things.
Also you are welcome here, man.
The days Sisyphus uploads are the days I’m happy
sad
I know exactly which book you read and it’s great to see you introducting more people to Sapolsky!
The Internet needed this video, thanks for making it. Looking forward to more content like this !
Could we get a commentary on the supposed opposition of testosterone, estrogen?
^^^^
Cortisol or leptin i think would be more close to it
@@broek6075 Testosterone is the main male hormone; it's an androgen. Its feminizing counterpart is estrogen.
Except estrogen is not a hormone, but a class of hormones. What you mean is estradiol.
@@jeffoneto278xd yeah but it's not really an opposition though. Having more test will also get you more estrogen. Estrogen might be "female" but it plays an important role in males as well. Meanwhile cortisol behaves much more like an opposition to testosterone. I can't recall when and where i read this. But there it was explained better. About how it's a common fallacy to see estrogen as the opposition
Had a pretty bad day, needed this. Thanks.
I would say to also take into account that it's not just rewarding aggression which causes it. Instantly pre-judging a man and treating him as an agressive entity even when he doesn't initially come across as one reinforces the idea in his head that agressive is all he ever is and all he will ever amount to. That, in turn, makes him agressive because it's dominating his self image
Biologically speaking, man have way more tendency of becoming agressive for a evolutionary factor, thats how literally they are constructed for, and taking in consideration that men have way more testosterone than woman, saying it doesn't create agressiveness seems very nonsensical
Yes and thank you
Testosterone is overhyped. Fixing low testosterone is a good thing. But neurotic men will quickly blame their lack of energy or confidence on lack of testosterone. Mine was perfectly average. I thought I'd feel like superman running a steroid cycle of 5 times my natural production but it hasn't made much difference at all! I still get tired, I still experience lack of motivation sometimes, it's still possible to be underrecovered from a hard workout. I did gain good amounts of muscle and beard hair seems 10-15% thicker and sturdier. Not because my steroids suck or bad genetics, just because test won't fix inherent drawbacks of having a body and living life on planet earth.
TLDR:
If you want the magic T-pills to solve your confidence/anxiety problems, you will be disappointed by your anxious/non-confident behaviours being cemented instead of being replaced(unless placebo effect kicks in).
If you want a better life, go to therapy - to get in touch with your emotions, learn to establish boundaries and develop healthy habits. Make sure to keep expectations low and compare yourself exclusively to your pre-therapy self.
TLDR to the TLDR: go out and touch grass
I’m in therapy, it doesn’t do shit if you’re intelligent. Exercise is key
@@Oscar4u69 TLDR TO THE TLDR TO THE TLDR:
Sunlight
Why would they be cemented
@@kiddkuru le very smart! Didnt realise you guys were still kicking around.
Therapy doesnt work unless you are being honest and truly introspective. Your statement clearly shows that you are neither.
These short essay videos are always a delight and a valuable point of reference to research further. I was researching DHT and I came accross your video. This was brilliant! Thank you and keep the good work.
Curious if you argued the same thing as Sapolsky before watching, happy to see you quote this brilliant dude. 'Behave' is a great book for anyone nerdy enough to want to dive deeply into human behaviour and it's mechanisms
Its crazy coming across the big claims of decreasing testosterone being due to people being weak etc, the major cause is very simply higher fat % in populations. Fat aromatises test into oestrogen, its well understood.
This is a very helpful top level video, test has a way worse reputation than it should
Vast oversimplification. Not everyone suffering from low t is fat.
There's a massive amount of reasons
@@susheyfish yeah no shit, did I say "everyone with low testosterone is fat"?? We're talking about populations ie statistics, and it simply is a principle component there. Just as much as low sleep and lack of exercise, unsaturated fats, gut bacteria and so on. Of these higher fat IS a direct factor in test conversion.
@@AquaticSkipper That's clearly what you were trying to insinuate with your initial statement though. I however agree with your second statement. It's a problem with many different variables to account for and singling one out or claiming it is the cause, would be an oversimplification.
fat and lack of physical work is has to be a lot of it of course those go hand in hand. that’s going to happen with more abundant resources so it has to be counteracted somehow, it does seem like there’s some powerful people trying to prevent that from happening
I just found your channel two days ago. I've binged most of your videos, but not all. And I'm happy to be early as hell with this one.
The most clarifying video i have ever seen about the testosterone myth. Congrats.
Thanks, that explains a lot. Some years back I got a blood test done for my hormone levels and my doctor said my testosterone was double the average and so was concerned. I have anxiety about my decision making ability because I often act before thinking, leading to things exploding in my face. I learn from my dumb experiences, but it hurts every time. I'm also always on edge, finding ways to compete and win against others to support my constantly crumbling self esteem and perfectionism.
Unfortunately, while I have an amazing beard, I'm not at all muscular and was only even slightly muscular when I played basketball, but it diapeared when I stopped, killing my expectations.
I really connected with what you said about difficulty reading people. This always keeps me on edge and makes it harder to trust people. Originally my family thought it was autism until I got tested and they said I didn't have it, but they didn't know what was wrong with me. I wonder if testosterone levels could be a part of it.
Anyways, I totally agree. I don't think testosterone will make you any better exactly, just more likely to do stupid, story worthy shit.
I LOVE the 80s/90s retro TV look!!
7:18 That explains why Jordan B Lobster keeps pushing for hierarchies that keeps him at the top of the chain
Your channel along with Academy of Ideas and many others are spreading so much amazing information. I can feel the world becoming a better place
One area I think you missed is the physical aspect. The Manosphere's obsession with physical traits like rugged facial hair and musculature is very much tied to that same flawed preconceptions and the pseudoscience around hormones. Yes, testosterone plays a big role in men being men, facial hair, muscles and all that; but only in balance and that includes in balance with other hormones like Estrogen ... but you don't hear these guys talking about that.
That’s a big thing people forget. There always is a balance in play no matter the more pronounced hormone and too much of something is never good. Too much oestrogen, you’ll ruin your bones, too much testosterone, you’ll increase risk of cancer and likely be sterile. Both play a significant part in every human being and what is usually attributed to testosterone I.e masculine traits is more due to the careful balancing act of both hormones than just testosterone.
Meh, most of those guys are just ugly slavic men coping with their moai like faces and baldness. Generally everyone in those circles seems to think ugliness = more manly which is pretty funny tbh.
Each man has his baseline hormone levels. You want to increase test for anabolic and other various effects while keeping estrogen low by suppressing the aromatisation of exogenous test
Coz there is no need to talk about estrogens in male body. There is no lack of estrogens in modern men. You talk about balance, but exactly more testosterone is the balance most modern men need. Unless you are on extreme diet or are taking special medication to tank your estrogens, there is no need to even think about it. Hell, if you have too much testosterone, your body will naturally burn it down to estrogens. So no, there is no need to talk about it lol.
@@lanagievski1540 Majority of men already have enough estrogen. What they lack is testoterone. And that's why people talk about it. No need to talk about estrogen, coz its plenty enough.
I have a very deep voice, had hairier legs than my peers at 11, and grew a full beard when I was 16. And yet I'm not aggressive or an a*hole.
if you are also fat - then your testoterone levels may be not as high as you assume they are.
@@alexforce9 He could have high testosterone levels but at the same time a diet so shitty and an exercise regimen so lacking that no natural metabolism could hold the fatness back
@@miguelpadeiro762 fair enough
So in summary, testosterone has little to do with "masculinity" rather it promotes whatever tendencies an individual may already have or what is required in that specific
circumstance.
So it’s kinda like an amp or booster
it still has plenty to do with physical masculine features. muscle mass, body hair growth and male pattern baldness, deeper voice are all correlated with higher testosterone
Growth hormone plays a big role in muscle mass
@@PhantomPhaze yeah, this is just a biologically illiterate cope for soys. Pretty sad tbh
no. he's pointing out that test is highly dopaminergic. I dont know why none of you dummies can say it that way.
As a trans man who as been on HRT with Testosterone for a while now, this what I observed ever since I started getting hormone shots. My aggression didn’t rise, even tho beforehand I had a history with anger issues, mainly I assume that is bc I already had the tools and methods to work around rising anger and frustration prior to starting testosterone. In my current most long lasting relationship, me and my partner never had a full on fight simply bc we both now how to manage upcoming anger. I also didn’t notice a drop in empathy, however I am much less likely to cry then I was before. What I did notice tho, that it catapulted me right into a quarter life crisis, I suddenly feel the constant need to prove myself academically and financially, making me feel much more down when I feel like I didn’t do something to my fullest potential. I also struggle to play competitive games with my friends like I used to, becoming an insanely sore loser, every time someone turns out to be better then me. … I’m still trying to figure out how to deal with that.
I like how this all feels like a school lesson. People are talking about the subject, everybody is thinking, and there are many student's. This is the reason why I love new era of educational content
My man did a face reveal and was so handsome he got a skin care product sponsorship. Hats off
i always felt like a “real man” was a thoughtful, kind, and generous one. so it was interesting to hear there’s some evidence of that
Interesting. It is totally a female vision of a "real man" what you describe. Men (many of them) tend to think the exact opposite.
@@shakya00 Well apparently both are true in different cultural and developmental contexts ;) (although conflating "real man", whatever that means, and high T is a bit reductive of course)
@@shakya00 not sure how that could be interpreted as “female”, but yeah, i never really saw aggressive and selfish men as masculine. i’ve associated that with immaturity or insecurity. but let me also make it clear that i understand that trying to describe a “real man” is pointless anyway.
@@ThunderHOWL16 It's just gender stereotyping, really. Men, especially boys, have an idea of "real men" being "tough" first and foremost, which can easily be conflated with aggression and such.
Women tend to focus more on "gentleman" qualities, like politeness, caring, etc., because that's what they want out of a man. A brutish man might treat her like a brute. Most women don't want that.
Men, and especially boys, focus on the "toughness" aspect because from the "traditional male perspective," they're the one that has to stand up, and possibly die for, their loved ones and what they believe in. Being a "man" (from the male perspective) is less about how gentle you are, and more about resilience and standing by your principles. Your "fighting spirit" more or less. (And this "fighting spirit" obviously isn't limited to physical fighting. This is where many immature men or boys start conflating "toughness" with being brutish.)
Just a guess as to why girls and boys tend to have a completely different view on what a "real man" is.
@@KarlSnarks Yeah, it obviously varies from country to country and individual to individual.
as a steroid user i can say the biggest mental changes from taking test are sleep quality, and making effort feel good while your doing it not just after.
see, i always thought i had bad testosterone receptors or just low testosterone, -or both i wonder if there is a link to the fact I just don't enjoy sports. I started boxing recently and I know logically it is good for my body so I do it and feel great about taking care of my body but when people ask me if I enjoy it, I feel quite awkward answering honestly.My sleep quality's always been good tho
I've gotten into these circles recently that do continuously mention testosterone. Just wanted to thank you for this video
with preservation also comes comfort through relied upon self-made consistency, but i like your idea. I think its a battle between wanting to increase what you have to the idealized level (produced by self, ads, friends, products, whatever you allow yourself to believe), and returning to a sense of having your bearings and knowing what you're going to try to do next. both basically grounded in motivation to be, whether through remaining, establishing, or shaping your sense of standing for optimal self preservation, give or take ambition to develop
*It is perhaps rather that the kind of primal, crude, aggressive masculinity is what is rewarded in today's dating and professional landscapes, as you mentioned.*
Actually, the trend is reversed. Society promotes prosocial, unadventurous, politically correct behavior. The reality society is constructed on top of rewards aggression and force because those things are inherently useful for getting what you want out of life and always have been. For example, acting like an effeminate homosexual with social anxiety can probably buy you a lot of leeway in certain circles and generally will get you treated nicer due to being seen as less threatening and will lead to you being seen as a more moral individual, it doesn't change the fact that women will find you inherently repulsive.
Also, I object to calling it "masculinity" because it's not even immutable to men it's just that men seem to be the only people able to exhibit these traits consistently.
About a month and a half ago I had really sudden increase in testosterone that lasted all the way until a few weeks ago. Every single night I was plagued with gory nightmares and during the day I was quite rude apparently. I’m not my doctor or anything but I do know that the amount of testosterone I was producing was abnormally high. Too much of anything will harm you, plain and simple!
@@swastika6383 My doctor did a test and told me
Maybe the hormonal imbalance got you like that, women get mood swings in mensturation and menopause and teenagers in general in puberty because of the hormonal changes
I really dig this new psychology/neurology route you're taking.
Bro was that the face reveal? Are you a model bro? Bro? Don’t talk to me about testosterone if you’re gonna wake up that handsome 😭
Great video man, loved it. It's so crazy how certain behaviors can become socially contagious and perpetuate pre held beliefs. Keep up the good work my friend, that boulder won't carry itself! 🤗👊🏼🙌🏼
did you read the Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck? It clearly states to still have empathy because the goal is not to be a sociopath, but to only direct your emotions to things that you can control.
This is one of the most interesting videos of yours I've seen
This is wonderful it genuinely helps me understand the men around me and myself thank u
These illustrations make the video way easier to follow. Thanks for them.
Honestly there have been a lot of videos talking about testosterone recently from both ends of the spectrum and I really didn't think this video was going to be saying anything new in the first half. But that study introduced in the end is very interesting. I'd love to see if there were replications of the findings. Having testosterone be a hormone that acts to sustain status could be really interesting, especially in the conversation about the right promoting hierarchies and using subversive means to proliferate those hierarchies. It would be wild if their obsession with testosterone is for this exact reason of punching down to maintain the rule they have established.
Very nice video. Do you plan on making a Myth of Estrogen? I'd love to see what misconceptions there are.
That’s not a myth. If you look at men who take high amounts of estrogen through things like soy, they look feminine or beta af
I too would like to see that.
The only misconception that I know of is that its bad (like in the soy-boy memes). Women don’t aim to have high-estrogen like how men aim to have high-testosterone. In fact, having too much estrogen is a significant concern for some women. Rarely do you find men worrying about having too much testosterone.
@@onewholovesvenison5335 The soyboy memes are about how excess consumption of a food very high in phytoestrogens (soy) is harmful to males. It leads to osteoporosis and obesity.
@@jebediahkerman8245 onions
Never expected to see you talking about Sapolsky, I highly recommend his behavioural biology 101 on youtube here for anyone more interested in him. A great mind
Adding to my watch list, thanks
"Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one."
Moaral of le story “be kind and collected don’t be an asshole”
Ironically the sigma male meme is true, testosterone in men leads to sociopathic tendencies
@@bitcoinzoomer9994 ye
@@bitcoinzoomer9994 No, medical studies demonstrate the exact opposite. You're sounding like the player at 10:17 who acts overly aggressive because he thinks he got dosed with testosterone but got none.
I was wondering when I saw this come up if you'd mention Sapolsky. That section on testosterone and how socio-cultural particularities shape its effects is one of the most memorable things I took away from his fist-thick book.
In australian schools its common to be taught that testosterone doesnt make men more aggressive, but it makes men protect status. A study that is used as an example to showcase this goes as follows;
The testosterone levels of soccer fans is tested before and after a stadium game. The fans who's team lost had higher levels of testosterone. It was implied that this was the case because there status was threatened (as they were supporting losers).
"I am the ALPHA MALE of pro-social behavior! No one opens more doors for people than me!"
I mean basically yeah lol. Who do you want to give your respect to, a douchebag who randomly punched someone on his way through the door or the guy who was holding the door for everyone?
Good information. It’s also important to note that hormones have a relationship with other hormones and messing with the balance (through supplements) can result in unexpected results.
For example, excess testosterone can be turned into estrogens and make you grow breasts.
The kind of talk fucked with my head as a teenager.
Mindset > Testosterone but honestly testosterone is very important for health but its only a helper(a great one at that) whatever you think and are goal focused on will happen as long as you try, not based on your ngl levels
If testosterone encourages behaviours that maintain status and amplify already known responses, what does estrogen do in that same context?
Estrogen makes one content with where they are, think Diogenes vs Alexander, or Musashi vs Kojiro. Maybe like Hercules vs Jesus, estrogen makes you receptive to enjoying things happening to you while Testosterone makes you enjoy doing things
@@sethgaston8347 source?
@@sethgaston8347 the most manly and monkey man, full of testosterone trying to teach people on how estrogen works. Ends up shitting right out of his mouth while broadcasting how little his brain works. Testosterone and estrogen don’t make you enjoy doing/enjoy things being done to you, what fucking pseudoscience.
@@sethgaston8347 I didn't get the "Hercules vs Jesus" so you are suggesting that Jesus was estrogen dominant?
@@boylain8481 It's a surprisingly accurate description tbh.
i would love to see pilgrim pass and sisyphus do a collab
I love the music in the background.
There's a huge misunderstanding here; High testosterone increases an individuals *capacity* for aggression. It does *not* make them *more* aggressive. A man with a great capacity for aggression and violence, who chooses to keep it sheathed outside of dire circumstances, is a much more desirable protector than a man with a lower capacity for aggression but easily susceptible to becoming violent.
Meh. If someone has trained to fight, he/ she doesn't really need a lot of agression to use it. Even less so if it involves a knife or a gun.
@@gur262 Not true. If someone is taught to fight (which increases their capacity for aggression by increasing their confidence in that area, anyway) but is somehow not very aggressive, in dire circumstances they will be much more hesitant and may make some fatal choices as a result. This hypothetical person who is trained to fight but lacks much capacity for aggression/violence will always lose in a real fight to someone who has a much greater capacity for violence by having the willingness to jump them in the street with a baseball bat. People with a capacity for aggression/violence naturally have a higher quality of awareness.
this video makes me feel good just like how alpha wolves not existing makes me feel great
Whooaaahh, the moment he explained what testosterone did for the middle of the pack monkeys blew my mind
Yeah, it explains why a lot of society blindly chooses to punch down instead of up
The irony of the Tiege Hanley ad is off the charts
I used to be a high testosterone kid growing up but that was gone the more i put my body through abuse because that whole: "Testosterone makes effort feel good" was too addicting and I burnt my body out by not resting adequately. If i could go back, I would be doing psalm 23: doing nothing 24/7 so God can do everything for me 24/7.
Sloth is a sin.
@@albinosh4dow 😭
@@albinosh4dow sloth as in the animal who physically can't go fast enough and is inherently slow even if it's life was in danger? No. I am not a sloth. Nor am I lazy. Lazy means you do what you want and you neglect things that are tedious or boring yet important. If you put a ton of pot in front of me I won't ever touch it until God controls me to smoke it or even touch it. God controls me 24/7. Not... God leads me to the "green grass" and then I tell God "I got it from here, boss" no. I don't do that. Bro when I am in the bathroom I do nothing and I finish and leave the bathroom while doing nothing. I go to sleep and in my dreams I'm still doing nothing. I am not lazy. I am obedient to the scripture. I shall not want. And guess what? When I want to really badly take a shit... I don't move for shit bro. God controls me 24/7 and I encourage you to give it a chance so you can get answers to what you need to know.
@@snackler6102 yeah that's not only stupid but goes against the entire bible. "Do shit you need to do and don't worry about shit you can't." Yeah what do I need to do? Obey God or say "thanks God for leading me to this and now I can take over now"? Remember that in the march that happened in the desert with Moses and the Tabernacle with the Noah ark in the middle, right? The main logic was God is the center of your life because that's why the symbolic and physical presence of God (aka the temple in the middle of the march where everyone was walking to the promise land after fleeing Egypt aka exodus) was in the middle. You need God and you are nothing without God. Do what you need to do? Which is what? Pray with flower language? Never put God to the test with good intentions so you can know what God wants from you? Psalm 23? Idk bro. But I've been doing nothing 24/7 for 3 solid years and God has been controlling me 24/7. I am the rock. I am the top G. And Jesus Christ was just a big phony.
I like how Hbomberguy looks like he hasn't gone outside in 4 years yet he's in the top 10% of T levels (or something daft like that).
Listen, nobody demonstrates this like trans guys. Like, a lot of us go on T and can tell you: our emotions often change in a similar way with differing levels of intensity. Like, we still experience happiness, sadness, anger. Anger occurring slightly more often. But they’re less complex. Like before I could feel happy-sad, or angry-sad, now its just anger or just sad, etc. A few cry less (maybe because our dysphoria is getting easier to handle lmao) but other than that its not enormously drastic most of the time.
Oh, and extreme horniness, apologies for the TMI. But thats partially because we’re going through a second puberty haha
The crying is usually because it's physically harder, the tear ducts that secrete tears get smaller under a high concentration of testosterone in the blood
The last part is so true. Even as a trans women who's waffled on the amount of anti-androgens I'm taking at any given time, it's insane how much testosterone impacts your sexuality on both a psychological and physical level. I love to give shit to straight men for having no taste but testosterone really is just like that.
@@Ciirulean i am also a trans woman and i havent noticed the shift in sexuality (or romanticism for that matter), i was attracted to women before hrt and still am, I was fortunate to not have started male puberty by the time i started puberty blockers and E2 so ig that might make a difference
@@fixyourlag701 Glad to hear you were able to prevent having to deal w/ male puberty to begin with! By "sexuality" I was referring more to the "experience" of sexual attraction rather than who you find attractive; you'll notice there's a pretty drastic shift between porn produced by men and women, and hormones play a large role in this.
@@cedar4539 Maybe you have some sort of an hormonal imbalance? These people have these symptoms because of taking hormones and, thus kinda of starting a new puberty like OP said
You show the are of not giving a fuck. I think that is a really good book about caring about the right things in life and about not giving a fuck about things that don't matter.
Hey Sisyphus,
I think that this video could have used some more sources, and a little more research. Where this was most obvious to me was when you were talking about aggression associated with administering testosterone. I think you need to spend a little more time researching the subject. Be careful of citing studies done in the 70s as well. The field of endocrinology and in general androgenic drug research has advanced MUCH farther since then and our understanding of these drugs has as well. There is still much to learn about the effects of testosterone and the role it is playing in our psychology. Congruently, estrogen plays an important role too. We also operate at a range of test in our blood (estrogen too) and test level fluctuates throughout the day for everyone. And the sentiment of test being a motivator is true in some regard, however too much or too little can have extreme short term and long term effects.
I think this is highlighted in newer dementia research. Some patients are treated with synthetic oestrogen to restore brain functionality. The mechanism in which the degeneration of the brain happened could possibly be due to too much or too little test as you grew older, which can be caused from certain genetic or environmental genetic triggering. Researchers are showing there is a real hormonal component to dementia. However, this isn't the sole cause as there are other genetic components leading to brain degeneration.
My point is that test is one of the most important chemicals our body relies on for any hormonal biomechanism, and this complexity and importance is lost when reducing it to "motivation". Having a healthy level of test isn't just motivational, it helps you live longer, its key to cognitive retention, and many more biomechanisms are driven from Test metabolites (like estrogen and oestrogen).
Love your videos, keep up the good work!
Hi Brad,
Thank you for the polite response. There is no doubt that testosterone and aggression hold a relationship. Even Sapolsky notes that an extreme level of testosterone in the form of injections consistently causes aggression (a simple example is that of bodybuilders who use steroids with testosterone, however he suggests there may be a selection bias in that these bodybuilders tend to be socially pre-disposed to a culture of aggression). The purpose of this video was instead to highlight the multifaceted relationship between testosterone and human behaviour. Aside from motivation, I also highlight T's effects on social cognition and I'm sure I could make a video hours long highlighting many of the other interesting effects, such as the dementia research that you have highlighted as well as its role in sexual dimorphism, stress, other forms of cognition and health. I do agree that I should have added a short sentence that cautions people from seeing testosterone as solely motivational in its effects and I'll try to keep this in mind in the future.
Regarding the 1977 study that looks at monkey hierarchies, I agree that relying on ancient research such as this is somewhat flawed. However, I struggled to find any future research that has refined these results aside from a review in 2006 (Behavioural and physiological aspects of stress and aggression in nonhuman primates
2006, Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews) and a study on inmates and antisocial behaviour in 2007 (Role of sex hormone-binding globulin in the relationship between sex hormones and antisocial and aggressive personality in inmates
2007, Psychiatry Research). which did not look at status. If somebody replicates these findings and finds something else (eg. low status monkeys become aggressive to others, indiscriminate of status) then relying on this study would, as you have correctly noted, be insufficient if not disingenuous.
Despite many of the other comments, this video is not some sort of anti-testosterone propaganda. Testosterone is a naturally occurring hormone in the body so that would be a weird angle to take. If anything, this is a direct summary of Robert Sapolsky's section on testosterone with the exact sources he has cited (aside from the trolley problem study). He too would likely agree that the complexities of T as a hormonal bio-mechanism is important to highlight. But, importantly, the pop-science treatment of testosterone has championed it as justification for many of antisocial markers found in masculine behaviour, which both Sapolsky and I would agree is a cop out when it comes to taking responsibility. This is why the title is "The Myth of Testosterone" and not "Everything You Need To Know About Testosterone".
Thank you for your support and insight!
@@Sisyphus55 loved the follow up! I’m working on my PhD in biomedical engineering right now so I follow a lot of the research in endocrinology and hormone bio mechanisms.
I understand you have to get people to click on the video hence the title. I guess Im biased towards specific titles that reference a mechanism/research in the paper. Where this is more of an exploration of Ts role and addressing some assumptions people make.
If you have an issue finding sources, try scihub, it unlocks all the paywalls on these journals. (If you aren’t already using it)
Talking by experience, i used to have 300< levels of testosterone. After i started TRT treatment, EVERYTHING changed. Its like starting a virtuous circle.
If you have the chance to do it, DO IT!
TLDR: “Testosterone -> focused aggression”
6:02 the way you described it sounds like it makes you emotionally unavailable...
6:42 the goal never justifies the means in my book...
absolutely can attest to this as a trans guy! Before T, i was super depressed, i felt bloated and constantly tired, and very insecure about myself because my body was different than other guys- but i started T gel and all of a sudden i felt like something just finally clicked and i felt human, it was life changing. T gel is my zoloft (at least in terms of its mood-stabilizing effect) everyone has a different level that works for them.
I'm a trans girl, but hello fellow trans person. I unfortunately haven't had any hormone changes so don't have anything useful to say about this subject
Love that the sponsor is brand started by the channel "Alpha M"
Every trans guy watching this be like: yes I’m inadequate for those reasons
i'm watching this on 2x and it still feels slow
So the placebo effect is stacked on top of whatever chemical is being tested. Psychology is really bizarre; I've seen studies where placebo said to be PEDs improve physical performance.
I wonder if there's anything to gleam from anti-placebo groups, i.e. a test group which thinks they are getting a compound that does the opposite of the believed effect (in this case estrogen).
Very informative and eloquent. Thanks for producing this video.