Cortisol → Leadership effectiveness
High cortisol is the condition under which 'high T = leader' fails. The internet quote drops this term.
Observational · Moderate
Supported by an experiment or a tightly identified design. Still read the caveats.
Mechanism
Social-evaluative threat upregulates HPA. In that state, T no longer tracks assertive, leader-like behavior and can track erratic or withdrawn responses instead. Carré and Olmstead emphasize contest-induced T change on top of this basal interaction.
Caveats
Cortisol is time-of-day and context sensitive. A single afternoon assay is a noisy moderator. Chronic vs acute cortisol are different questions.
Effect
qualitative. High cortisol is the proposed brake on T-linked dominance.
Nodes
Named confounders
Cite this page
What Causes What. “Cortisol → Leadership effectiveness.” https://whatcauseswhat.org/edges/e-cortisol-moderates-t (atlas updated 2026-08-31).
Papers
- Testosterone and cortisol jointly regulate dominance: Evidence for a dual-hormone hypothesis
P. H. Mehta, R. A. Josephs · 2010 · Hormones and Behavior
- Social neuroendocrinology of human aggression: Examining the role of competition-induced testosterone dynamics
J. M. Carré, N. A. Olmstead · 2015 · Neuroscience