Anticipating Peer Ranking Causes Hormonal Adaptations That Benefit Cognitive Performance

Anticipating Peer Ranking Causes Hormonal Adaptations That Benefit Cognitive Performance. Carsten K. W. De Dreu, Klarita Gërxhani, Arthur Schram. American Behavioral Scientist, March 3, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764221996749

Rolf Degen's take: The mere anticipation that ones performance will be ranked by a peer decreases testosterone and increases cortisol, enhancing cognitive achievement

Abstract: Performance ranking is common across a range of professional and recreational domains. Even when it has no economic consequences but does order people in terms of their social standing, anticipating such performance ranking may affect how people feel and perform. We examined this possibility by asking human subjects to execute a simple cognitive task while anticipating their performance being ranked by an outside evaluator. We measured baseline and postperformance levels of testosterone and cortisol. We find that (1) anticipating performance ranking reduces testosterone and increases cortisol, (2) both these hormonal responses benefit cognitive performance, which explains why (3) anticipation of being ranked by a peer increases cognitive performance.

Keywords: performance ranking, testosterone, cortisol, hormonal response, cognitive performance