Testosterone and Tolerance

Before I saw today’s headlines I was thinking of giving this blog a title of ‘I predicted a riot and so did SAGE.’ We knew this was coming. Honestly, we did. Behavioural scientists know humans. We knew that after a certain period cooped up, living in fear, anger and boredom there would be civil unrest. I expect I’m not the only one who is surprised that riots haven’t happened sooner.

I say humans but I mean men, or rather people with excess testosterone.

The Daily Mail are surprised. Who would have thought it would be angry white men whose hormones got the better of them before angry black men?

No, seriously, they are surprised. Although, they have been whipping up hatred and fear of ‘others’, they thought they were on pretty safe ground. They thought white men would not blow first because black men have so much more to be angry about. 

Tolerance is such an odd word to use. It means, “We knew you wanted to kill them and drive them out of our country but we thought we’d taught you to put up with it.” No wonder these poor hormonal men are so cross and confused.

Testosterone is an understudied hormone. The links between it and aggression are clear, though. Doctors who treat patients for prostate cancer (where testosterone has to be suppressed) all note that their patients all become nicer. There have been some studies into what happens to the hormone with abstinence and it appears that lack of sex can cause a phenomenal spike after 7 days and an increased rise after three weeks. I’m not saying that all the aggressive men we saw on the news last night were single and living with their elderly parents, with less opportunities for self relief than they’d like. No. I’m not saying that at all but they clearly have a problem. 

Women have used hormone therapy for many years to treat their emotional state but men don’t see this hormonal balance as a problem.  Society pretends that something has gone wrong with tolerance or that black men are just revolting, when really, it’s an imbalance of male hormones.

This is why it’s ‘not all men’. 

There are things that naturally cause testosterone to drop. Things like taking on childcare, being around children or women (especially if they cry) and empathy.  There was never going to be this huge outpouring of violence from the Black Lives Matter protests because the testosterone was kept in check. That protest came out of empathy. No one could feel empathy for a statue.

I have a solution for these kinds of situations that I think would keep everyone happy. Police could hand out free beer with testosterone blockers in. I like to imagine a tattooed Tommy Robinson taking a sip, looking confused for a moment and saying, “Oh, look at that bird, isn’t it pretty?” as a secret service pigeon struts by to report on the success of the operation to his Commander in Chief at the top of Nelson’s Column.