INHIBITION OF AGGRESSIVENESS BY OVARIAN HORMONES1
- 1 June 1955
- journal article
- other
- Published by The Endocrine Society in Endocrinology
- Vol. 56 (6) , 684-692
- https://doi.org/10.1210/endo-56-6-684
Abstract
ACONSIDERABLE body of experimental and observational evidence indicates that the social behavior of animals is influenced by gonadal hormones (Beach, 1948). In many species androgen is associated with aggressive activity (Collias, 1944). Testicular hormone has been found to increase the incidence of fighting behavior in male reptiles (Evans, 1946; Noble and Greenberg, 1941), birds (Davis and Domm, 1941; Emlen and Lorenz, 1942) and mammals (Beeman, 1947). Androgen also stimulates aggressiveness in the females of some mammalian species (Huffman, 1941). Some animals establish and maintain stable social orders which are characterized by differential dominance status for each invididual, and the administration of androgenic hormones tends to increase the dominance ranking of treated individuals although species differences in this respect are marked (Birch and Clark, 1950; Mirsky, in press). In contrast to androgen, estrogen has been regarded as an inhibitor of aggressive behavior although this is not true in all cases (Birch and Clark, 1950; Mirsky, in press).Keywords
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