Chinese researchers found that adolescent fairness decisions depend not just on age but also on interactions between cortisol and testosterone, with teens often showing more generosity toward friends than strangers.
A study in Psychoneuroendocrinology suggests that adolescents’ sense of fairness shifts as they grow older, with teens increasingly favoring friends over strangers when dividing resources.
Researchers in China found that testosterone and cortisol levels interact to influence strategic fairness, where social reputation and reciprocity matter. “As adolescents mature, they increasingly consider social distance in both strategic and pure fairness decisions, favoring friends over strangers,” the study authors wrote.
In boys, higher testosterone at certain cortisol levels intensified differences in how they treated friends versus strangers, while other hormonal patterns encouraged more equal treatment. The findings shed light on how stress and sex hormones jointly shape moral and social decision-making in teens.