Associations Between Implicit Motives and Salivary Steroids, 2D:4D Digit Ratio, Mental Rotation Performance, and Verbal Fluency

Abstract

Both implicit motives and cognitive abilities have been shown to be associated with gonadal steroid hormones in previous research. Here, we present and test in a sample of 81 participants a conceptual model that links organizational and activational effects of gonadal steroids to implicit needs for power and affiliation, assessed with a picture-story method, 2D:4D digit ratio as a marker of organizational hormone effects, salivary measures of testosterone, progesterone, and estradiol as indicators of current (i.e., activational) effects, and spatial cognition and verbal ability, assessed with 3D mental rotation and verbal fluency tasks. Need for power showed both linear and curvilinear relationships with mental rotation performance and was associated with a more male digit ratio in individuals high in activity inhibition (AI), a picture-story-based measure of greater right-hemispheric engagement. Needs for affiliation and power interacted with AI and gender in predicting verbal fluency, with low-AI affiliation-motivated women and high-AI power-motivated women achieving higher verbal fluency scores than other participants. The opposite pattern was observed in men. Neither implicit motives nor digit ratio or cognitive ability measures were significantly associated with salivary hormones.