Tags: peter gray

The Difference Blog

Motivations and Game choice

Men and women seem to have different motivations for gambling, as discussed in the problem gambling post on Monday. Walker et al (2005) finds that both men and women seem to enjoy the communal aspect of gambling, but that men also enjoy the risk-taking and learning aspects of games, whereas women seem to view the games as escapist. These differences seem to manifest in different game choices, but attempts to quantify these choices are inconclusive.

Laplante et al (2006) examine some research that suggest that men are more drawn to table games and track betting, whereas women prefer bingo and slots. Peter Gray (2004) found that higher interest in gambling seems to be prevalent in men cross-culturally. In the U.S. and Australia, women seem to play slots more than men do, but men seem to prefer higher-stakes slot machines when they play them. However, Gray is quick to point out that the results are not robust on these differences.


I've never really been able to get into playing slots. It just seems incredibly boring to me. I tend to enjoy table games quite a lot, but although this is my 6th trip to Vegas in 4 years, I still haven't played a single hand of blackjack. I just never got around to it. The communal aspect of table games is what I enjoy about casino gambling, and that's really doesn't feel accessible to me at the slots. At the tables, you observe the wins and losses of your fellow players, and everyone is playing against the house, so you're sort of rooting for each other.

Dan4th is on vacation. This post was created in advance.
The Difference Blog

Testosterone and Pair-bonding

Burnham et al (2003) found that men in current committed relationships (whether married or unmarried) had 21% lower saliva testosterone levels than single men. Gray et al (2004) confirmed these results, and found that this effect was more pronounced in afternoon and evening samples of testosterone levels than in morning samples. However, it is not clear whether partnering causes lower T levels, or whether lower T levels increase the chance of partnering.

Van Anders and Watson (2006) found that single people with lower testosterone levels in Phase 1 of their study were more likely than high-testosterone subjects to be partnered at follow-up (6+ months later). Interestingly, van Anders and Watson also looked at testosterone levels in women, and took sexuality into account. They found that lower testosterone levels were associated with partnered status in heterosexual men, and non-heterosexual women, but not with heterosexual women or non-heterosexual men.


I've been lucky enough to be in one stable, committed relationship since before I began injecting testosterone. This makes me fairly rare among the transmen I know. Transition is necessarily a stressful, self-absorbed period in a person's life, and this tends to make maintaining a relationship difficult. The suddenness of the hormonal changes (in the case of ftms, the simultaneous onset of menopause and second puberty) can make the most trivial interactions difficult, as well. Therefore, I doubt the effect of hormone administration on the relationships of transsexuals is a good comparison model for hormone levels in the general population.