{"id":6592,"date":"2013-09-26T07:35:10","date_gmt":"2013-09-26T12:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/?p=6592"},"modified":"2013-09-26T09:38:28","modified_gmt":"2013-09-26T14:38:28","slug":"what-can-testicles-tell-us-about-dads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/2013\/09\/26\/what-can-testicles-tell-us-about-dads\/","title":{"rendered":"What can Testicles tell us about Dads?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This month\u2019s guest column* by Tristan Bridges, Ph.D.<\/a>,\u00a0deals\u00a0 with a recent research publication on a correlation between testicle size and\u00a0nurturing instincts\/behaviors in men.\u00a0 Bridges, a sociologist at The College at Brockport, State University of New York,\u00a0is currently working on a project\u00a0dealing with the meanings of “man caves” in contemporary U.S. households.<\/p>\n

__________<\/p>\n

So\u2026I\u2019m going to go ahead and say that this is the wrong question to be asking. This question proceeds from a belief that testicles CAN tell us something about dads. A new study is making the rounds in the news that addresses the relationship between testicle size and parenting behavior among men (well\u2026 70 men\u2026 not randomly sampled\u2026). The paper is entitled \u201cTesticular Volume is Inversely Correlated with Nurturing-Related Brain Activity in Human Fathers<\/a>\u201d in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America<\/i>. I can think of more than a few titles that might have been catchier (and clearly, journalists reporting<\/a> on the research had a similar idea<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"File:Paternal<\/a>In fairness, I don\u2019t have access to the complete study (though I\u2019ve requested it). But the problem is also in how this study gains attention in the media. It\u2019s a great example of how a correlation combined with cultural stereotypes and assumptions can run wild. When correlations combine with popular stereotypes concerning a particular topic (like, say, the relationship between testosterone and any number of socially undesirable behaviors), questions about the science sometimes get lost because it looks like something was \u201cscientifically proven\u201d that we already wanted to believe anyway.<\/p>\n

So, here\u2019s the relationship the researchers found: men with smaller testicles tested more positively for nurturance-related responses in their brains when shown pictures of their children. The study reports that men with smaller testicles had roughly three times the level of brain activity in the area of the brain associated with nurturing. These men (with smaller testicles) were also men with lower levels of testosterone\u2014something that has previously been shown<\/a> to be associated with nurturing behavior among men.*<\/p>\n

Side Note: Just for fun, I\u2019d love to know how to measure testicular size. Is it a measure of circumference (in which case I\u2019d want to know: width or height)? Is it a measure of total tissue volume? And, how is the measurement taken? There\u2019s probably a great \u201cHow many grad students does it take to\u2026.?\u201d joke in here somewhere. But, I\u2019ll rise above the temptation.<\/em><\/p>\n

The researchers, then, have found a correlation between nurturing-related brain activity and testicular volume (and, to be fair, this is right in their title). But, off the top of my head, I can think of more than a few ways of explaining this correlation differently than they have. And, if you\u2019re not up on your research methods, a correlation simply means that two (or more) trends, variables, etc. can be shown to vary together. So, age an income might be an example. But proving that one variable or trend is actually causing another is more difficult. To prove a causal relationship, you need three things (to convince the scientists anyway):<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Correlation<\/b>\u2014you\u2019ve\u00a0got to be able to show that the two things you\u2019re saying have a\u00a0relationship actually have a relationship with one another.<\/li>\n
  2. Time Order<\/b>\u2014you\u2019ve\u00a0got to be able to show that the thing you\u2019re saying is \u201ccausing\u201d the other\u00a0thing happens prior to the change you\u2019re claiming is \u201ccaused.\u201d<\/li>\n
  3. Rule Out\u00a0Other Possible Explanations<\/b>\u2014even when you\u2019ve established a correlation and can\u00a0show time order in a way that favors your interpretation of the\u00a0relationship, you still have to consider alternative ways of explaining\u00a0the same finding.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Okay, back to the testicles. So, the study shows a correlation. And, there are really three explanations for the correlation. Either: a. testicle size is causing (or inhibiting) nurturance, b. nurturing behavior (or lack thereof) is causing testicular volume, or c. something else is to blame for both nurturing behavior and testicular volume.<\/p>\n

    Stanford neuroendocrinologist Robert Sapolsky<\/a> wrote a great essay<\/a> on the relationship between testosterone and violence. Sapolsky argues that there is a huge cultural bias favoring an understanding wherein higher levels of testosterone are seen as responsible for increased violence (especially in men). But, research actually favors the opposite understanding: violence causes spikes in testosterone levels (see, time order really is important). My sense is that a similar misstep is taking place in the debates about testicular volume, testosterone and nurturing behavior among men.<\/p>\n

    The authors of the testicular volume study are upfront in claiming that they are unable to actually demonstrate that testicular size is a \u201ccause or a consequence of male life-history strategies<\/a>\u201d. However, like the relationship between testosterone and violence, they have cultural bias on their side in suggesting the relationship is causal. Cultural stereotypes surrounding testosterone create an environment in which testicle size (and associated levels of testosterone) are much more likely to be framed as the culprit.<\/p>\n

    So, a possible interpretation of this study (and the one that the media has been quick to adopt) is that some men seem biologically better suited to be fathers\u2014to actually participate in nurturing and caregiving. But, a more complex implication could be that caregiving and nurturance are not qualities for which people are more or less biologically suited. Engagement in nurturing and caregiving behaviors causes changes in both women and men\u2014emotional, behavioral, and, yes, physiological as well. If I had to guess what the actual relationship is between testicular volume and nurturance, I\u2019d guess that testicular volume is a consequence, not a cause, of nurturance among men. While they haven\u2019t proven causation, this is, biologically speaking, the interpretation with more evidence.<\/p>\n

    Why does this matter? In a culture in which women are culturally understood as responsible for the caregiving of children, it\u2019s easy to assume that women\u2019s nurturing qualities are somehow hardwired. Similarly, in a cultural environment in which men have (in recent history) done relatively little caregiving, it might be easy to similarly assume that they are somehow naturally ill-suited to nurture. Correlations like this let men off the hook for being bad parents. It sounds like they can\u2019t help it. But, there are plenty of factors that work against men\u2019s active involvement in their children\u2019s lives in the U.S. today. They just aren\u2019t biological.<\/p>\n

    *To be fair, this study<\/a> is longitudinal and does acknowledge time order. What\u2019s problematic is the assumption that parenting activity is the only behavior that might have this effect on men\u2019s testosterone levels, as well as the assumption that men\u2019s testosterone levels are naturally high prior to \u201cpartnering.\u201d To prove that these differences in testosterone levels are naturally occurring and biologically determined, we\u2019d need to show cross-cultural universality in men\u2019s pre-parental and post-parental testosterone levels. I\u2019m not aware of any research on this topic.<\/p>\n

    __________<\/p>\n

    Note: this column was originally posted on Inequality by (Interior) Design<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and is reposted with the author’s permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    This month\u2019s guest column* by Tristan Bridges, Ph.D.,\u00a0deals\u00a0 with a recent research publication on a correlation between testicle size and\u00a0nurturing instincts\/behaviors in men.\u00a0 Bridges, a sociologist at The College at Brockport, State University of New York,\u00a0is currently working on a project\u00a0dealing with the meanings of “man caves” in contemporary U.S. households. __________ So\u2026I\u2019m going to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1918,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21094],"tags":[70,2715,1976,25763,25764,25765],"class_list":["post-6592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bedside-manners","tag-family","tag-fatherhood","tag-masculinity","tag-testicle","tag-testicles","tag-testosterone"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1918"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6592"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6601,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6592\/revisions\/6601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}