Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Our research program is aimed at understanding the evolved links between testosterone (T) and diversity in human sexuality and intimacy. Traditionally, T is studied in relation to maleness, positive links with sexuality, and negative links with pair bonds (long-term, intimate relationships). However, findings do not always support these links and sometimes show contradictory ones, resulting in a "T-intimacy paradox." My trainees and I developed the "steroid/peptide theory of social bonds" (van Anders, Goldey, & Kuo, 2011) to explore how T is related to intimacy across people of diverse gender/sexes and sexualities, since research traditionally has focused only on people in mixed-gender/sex relationships. We use this theory to generate predictions about how T is related to intimacy: positively to "competitive" aspects of sexuality and pair bonds (e.g., towards pleasure or power) and negatively to "nurturant" ones (e.g., towards warm, loving closeness). This, in turn, provides insights into the evolutionary functions of T and intimacy in humans. Across three projects, we test how T and intimacy are linked, to unravel or even resolve the T-intimacy paradox. To address this, we use promising approaches developed in-lab with trainees. First, we experimentally test how sexual cognitions change T, comparing nurturant and competitive sexual cognitions to control conditions using an "imagined social situation exercise". Next, we assess how T is correlated with multifaceted sexual desire, using a questionnaire we developed that disentangles competitive and nurturant facets of sexual desire. Finally, we explore how competitive and nurturant aspects of relationships are linked to T. Throughout, we use research designs that are inclusive of gender/sex and sexual diversity, and explore how diversity matters for T-intimacy links. The long-term goals of our research are to: (a) understand the evolved links between T and diverse forms of intimacy, and (b) develop and grow social neuroendocrinology that is informed by equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). The steroid/peptide theory of social bonds along with EDI-informed methodologies we have developed generate testable hypotheses specific to this discovery grant that can help us disentangle forms of intimacy. We can then assess how these diverse forms of intimacy are associated with T in ways that are predicted by theory. This discovery grant will provide opportunities for 28 trainees to develop skills in social neuroendocrine research design, hormone assays, gender/sex and sexual diversity, and EDI-informed science. It will support our ongoing efforts in providing innovative and inclusive paradigms that other researchers can use to explore social neuroendocrine questions. And, findings from this DG can help transform understandings of T, intimacy, and sexuality to reflect gender/sex and sexual diversity, helping to promote Canada as a global leader in gender and sexual equity, including in science.