Stanford professor Robert Sapolsky found that individuals with high testosterone were more likely than others to engage in competitive, “status-seeking” behaviors when opportunities arose to ascend the hierarchy and assume the top rank (e.g., when an established alpha is injured).42 And this relationship between status and testosterone is reciprocal: not only is basal testosterone a good predictor of who will rise to the top, but rising to the top also increases an individual’s circulating levels of testosterone. As status is gained, testosterone rises.
