Could a Testosterone Supplement Make You a Republican?

One experiment supports the theory. But it’s got a lot of caveats. Learn the truth about “manly men” and low-T.

Humans declare themselves to be creatures of logic and reason, but we’re still full of hormones, which influence our choices in everything from romantic partners to whether we make a big purchase (and how much haggling we do over it) to… our political party?

In 2011, a small study suggested that the male-associated hormone testosterone, in particular, may influence our political choices. The study, titled “Testosterone Administration Induces A Red Shift in Democrats” found that, indeed, in certain limited cases, supplementing a person’s testosterone level led to them lending more support to Republican candidates.

Certain media outlets have since run amok with this conclusion, seeking to broadly apply it to all aspects of politics. But are they accurately representing the findings, or exaggerating the effect?

Consensus research suggests that the entire idea of a “lack of testosterone crisis” may be overblown, and supplements may do more harm than good.

Aggression: not always good

Testosterone is an androgen, or male sex hormone. It’s the primary and most well-known androgen; our glands produce other androgens, but they are present at lower levels and don’t have as pronounced of an effect. Testosterone is present in both men and women, although at much higher levels in men.

Testosterone levels rise sharply during male puberty and peak in the late teens, and then slowly decline over a man’s lifetime. Testosterone influences a lot of different aspects of life, so the early increase and gradual later decrease is significant.

Some of testosterone’s effects:

• Increasing weight, muscle mass, and strength
• Driving the development of typical “male” physical characteristics, including male genitalia, facial hair, sperm production, and a deeper voice
• Boosting bone strength

But like everything else in life, it’s possible to have too much of a good thing. Too-high levels of testosterone can result in:

• Low sperm counts and impotence
• Damage to the heart, liver, and prostate
• Worsening acne (part of why teenage boys struggle so much during puberty)
• Mental effects: aggression, mood swings, irritability, and impaired judgment

Keep that last point in mind as we summarize this study looking at how testosterone supplementation affects political leanings.

More testosterone, better opinions of Republicans

The paper starts off pointing out the societal influences of high testosterone (called “T”): “Men with naturally high T levels are more likely to have physical altercations, divorce more often, spend less time with their children, are hypercompetitive, have more sexual partners, face learning disabilities, and lose their jobs more often than men with lower T.”

In the study, researchers compared testosterone levels in 136 men to their political preferences. Some of the men received testosterone supplementation via a topical gel. They took a survey about their political leanings before the gel was administered, and then again the next day.

Of note: This study’s questionnaire did not ask about specific policies. Instead, it asked how favorable, on a scale of 1–100, individuals felt towards leadership members of each party at the time (Democrates: Obama, Biden, Clinton, Pelosi, Reid. Republicans: Romney, Gingrich, Palin, Huckabee, Paul.), and whether they considered themselves strongly Democratic, weakly Democratic, strongly Republican, weakly Republican, or independent.

Certain results were significant. Compared to the 61 individuals who received a placebo, a significant fraction of the 75 testosterone-supplemented individuals suddenly leaned more Republican. Specifically, those who initially described themselves as leaning slightly Democratic (but fell into the general label of “swing voters”) expressed more warmth towards Republicans after supplementation.

Does this mean, as many members of the far-right fringe claim, that Democratic supporters are low-testosterone “soyboys” and Republicans are the party of “Real Men”?

What the study didn’t find

For what it examined, this study is well done. It was double-blinded, so neither the participants nor the researchers knew which individuals received the testosterone vs. a placebo during the experiment. The statistics are well done and the authors are careful to not draw overly broad generalizations from their findings.

Those findings also show that the effects of testosterone supplementation are pretty limited. The results didn’t show any significant effects on individuals with strongly held beliefs — Trump isn’t going to win over Democratic cities by sneaking testosterone into the water reservoir like a Batman villain.

It also showed that testosterone levels aren’t a significant identifier of party preference. Overall, Democrat and Republican men showed near-identical testosterone levels.

This was also a two-day experiment. Researchers gave a single dose of testosterone and repeated the survey the next day. The results might not hold up if analyzed over a longer period of time. If someone gave you a huge dose of some other chemical, like caffeine, or a massive marijuana-laced brownie, you might also give different responses to a questionnaire than usual.

Also, participants were all young, around 22 years old. The results may not predict what would be found across all age groups; testosterone could have a weaker (or stronger) influence on older voters.

Weakly affiliated Democrats, out of all voter groups, are most likely to change their votes and opinions between elections, even without any hormone doses. Thus, they may also be most likely to change their opinions when given a large dose of a mind-altering hormone.

Is the whole “low-T” thing even real?

In the last few years, many Republicans and members of the Republican-associated fringe have made much of testosterone levels. Donald Trump went on Dr. Oz and let the host praise his supposedly high testosterone levels. Conspiracy theorists claim that male testosterone is being suppressed to create a more pliable population. In October 2022, far-right commentator Tucker Carlson released a documentary focused on the self-proclaimed epidemic of low testosterone in the United States.

As is usually the case with conspiracy theories, there’s a small nugget of truth behind the claim, but it’s overblown and mixed with misinformation. Over the last three decades, several studies have shown a decrease in average testosterone levels in men — but it’s closer to 25%, rather than the 50% or greater reduction that is claimed by the far right.

The causes of this decline are likely much more pedestrian than the conspiracies claim:

• Being overweight or obese lowers the body’s testosterone levels and reduces testosterone production.
• Metabolic syndromes (like type II diabetes, which is also connected to being overweight or obese) can also decrease testosterone.
• Exercise briefly boosts testosterone levels, so our increasingly sedentary lifestyles may deprive us of the hormone.
• Smoking tobacco boosts testosterone; as smoking levels in the United States have declined, it may have lowered an artificially boosted level of testosterone.
• Testosterone levels rise and fall over a man’s life; some activities, such as becoming a father, will lower testosterone levels.

There’s an entire industry devoted to convincing you (if you’re a man) that you have low testosterone and it’s the root cause of all your problems. But profit motives aside, testosterone likely isn’t at fault. Multiple studies have failed to find any strength or virility benefit from increasing testosterone levels through supplementation.

Testosterone appears to be a threshold, rather than a dimmer switch. You need to have a minimum required level — but additional testosterone above that level is not beneficial from a health standpoint.

Even the links between testosterone and risk-taking activities are clouded by competing influences from other hormones. When trying to link a complex topic like hormone influences with another complex area like political preference, it becomes next to impossible to identify a single causative agent.

Testosterone, especially in men, promotes aggressive and risk-taking behavior. That one study way back in 2011 did find that a one-time testosterone supplement drove slightly Democratic swing voters to express an improved opinion towards Republican candidates, but overall levels of testosterone don’t correlate to political party preference, and the supplement didn’t affect strongly affiliated voters — Democrat or Republican. Wider evidence argues that the claims of rapidly declining testosterone levels are an exaggeration, and it’s likely driven more by lifestyle factors such as increasing obesity levels.

It’s probably best to ignore advertisements suggesting that you need a testosterone supplement, unless a doctor diagnoses you with abnormally low testosterone such as from a glandular issue. You don’t need high testosterone levels, only a base minimum level. Although behavior is complex, a high T level may cause more problems than it solves.

When it comes to hormones and health, most hyperbolic claims are overblown, like the myth that oat or soy milk gives you too much estrogen.

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