I was running through some articles and links I had saved today and came across a post that made me laugh as much today as the first time I read it a couple of years ago. The post referred to a study conducted by a couple of fellas at Concordia University titled “The Effects of Conspicuous Consumption on Men’s Testosterone Levels”.
There are a couple of studies in the article, but in the first one they had 39 young guys hop in both a 2006 Porsche 911 Carrera S Cabriolet and a beat up 1990 Toyota Camry wagon. They were behind the wheel of each for an hour, and split driving time between the city and highway. Which car was driven first was selected at random.
Testosterone levels, or “T” levels as the experts call it, were measured 6 different times over the course of the experience with baseline levels being measured before and after driving.
Surprise surprise, driving the Porsche led to “significant and substantial increases in T levels”. Driving the Camry, not so much. In fact city driving in the Camry appears to actual have decreased T levels. Hmmm…
I was thinking back over the years of driving different sports cars and how they made me feel at the time, and I have to admit, it’s mighty fun to drive a sports car of just about any sort. Everything from the somewhat gutless first gen BMW Z3 to the Ferrari 458 Italia I drove last year, they all create an exciting experience. I’d never really thought about their impact on my testosterone levels until I came across that article.
I suppose one of the allures of driving a sports car is the perceived increase in “street cred” for lack of better words. That’s never really what my nearly life long love of cars like Porsche, Ferrari and Lamborghini have ever been about. I absolutely love the cars, with little interest in what other people thought when they saw me driving one. In fact, I tend to shy away from wanting to be ultra noticed in a car, with my driving habits changing quite a bit when I hopped behind the wheel of a Porsche or Ferrari (or whatever sports car was at my disposal).
Reminds me of the following commercial from a few years ago:
Maybe Porsche should include a line about increasing testosterone levels in it’s 2014 brochures.
[Source: Bob Sutton Work Matters; Citation: G. Saad, J.G. Vongas / Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 110 (2009) 80–92]
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