Two leading social neuroendocrinology researchers, professors Pranjal Mehta and Robert Josephs, have proposed that testosterone is related to power only when cortisol is low, which they refer to as the dual-hormone hypothesis.46 Just as powerlessness saps our executive function and makes us anxious, so, too, does high cortisol. So when cortisol is high, high testosterone does not relate to powerful feelings and behaviors.
