--- title: Low T: Testosterone Decline in Early Man Linked to Tech Advances description: Did lower T lead to higher tech? Research links decreases in manly traits to an increase in sophisticated toolmaking among in humans canonical: https://time.com/3079851/low-t-declining-testosterone-early-man/ author: Charlotte Alter article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-04T23:20:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:55:46.490Z og:title: Low T: Testosterone Decline in Early Man Linked to Tech Advances og:description: Did lower T lead to higher tech? Research links decreases in manly traits to an increase in sophisticated toolmaking among in humans og:url: https://time.com/3079851/low-t-declining-testosterone-early-man/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9ee6a07ba647275c/69869e5fe53aba23d94d3dfd/128583565.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4178 og:image:height: 2350 og:image:alt: 128583565 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Low T: Testosterone Decline in Early Man Linked to Tech Advances twitter:description: Did lower T lead to higher tech? Research links decreases in manly traits to an increase in sophisticated toolmaking among in humans twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9ee6a07ba647275c/69869e5fe53aba23d94d3dfd/128583565.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Study: Society Flourished When Humans Got Less Manly > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture recommendation newsletter, edited by culture editor Eliza Berman. Each week it surfaces the books, shows, films and ideas TIME's editors think are worth your attention, and explains why. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Does TIME have a culture newsletter? Yes. Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published weekly. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-worth-2026q3/newsletters?i=233418c5-d5c8-48a3-aab0-4a604e6624af&cr=time-nl-worth-2026q3-v1)  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Aug 4, 2014 11:20 PM UTC  A model of Peking man (Homo erectus pekinensis), who lived 1-2 million years ago A model of Peking man (Homo erectus pekinensis), who lived 1-2 million years ago Getty Images  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Aug 4, 2014 11:20 PM UTC Some anthropologists now believe that advanced human behaviors like toolmaking only developed when early humans evolved to have lower levels of testosterone than their ancestors, according to a new study published in [_Current Anthropology_](http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/journals/journal/ca.html). “All of a sudden, in the archeological record, culture and advanced technology suddenly becomes more widespread. And at that time we also see a decrease in testosterone,” said the study’s lead author Bob Cieri, a graduate student at the University of Utah. “Before 50,00 years ago, there were brief flashes of advanced behavior and artifacts, but they’re not persistent and widespread.” Cieri measured the browridge of different human skulls, which indicates the level of testosterone in the skeleton. Heavier brows and longer faces indicate more testosterone, and more rounded heads indicate less testosterone, according to Stephen Churchill, the Duke professor who supervised Cieri’s work. Cieri measured 13 human skulls that were more than 80,000 years old; 41 skulls between 10,000 and 38,000 years old; and over 1,200 20th-century skulls from different ethnic populations. He found that the modern skulls had substantially more rounded features and less heavy brows than the early skulls, indicating a drop in testosterone between our early ancestors and modern humans. Cieri says the decrease in testosterone levels could be attributed to the rise in the Homo sapiens population, which meant that people had to be nicer to each other because they were living in closer quarters. “If population density starts increasing, not only are there more people in your immediate environment that you have to get along with, but all land would be occupied with human groups,” he explains. “You wouldn’t just go across to the other side of the valley to hunt bison by yourself, you’d go to the other side of the valley and maybe make a treaty with the other people who live there.” It’s important to note that these early humans didn’t yet have “culture” as we know it — they were still hunter-gatherers, Cieri says, but they were much less aggressive about it. But he thinks this lowering of testosterone led to more cooperation between people, which laid crucial groundwork for cultural advances thousands of years later. So if you’re still worried about low T after reading [TIME’s recent cover story](http://time.com/3062889/manopause-aging-insecurity-and-the-2-billion-testosterone-industry/?pcd=hp-magmod), “Manopause?!,” consider that a little less T isn’t always a bad thing. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3079851/low-t-declining-testosterone-early-man/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3079851/low-t-declining-testosterone-early-man/"},"headline":"Study: Society Flourished When Humans Got Less Manly","datePublished":"2014-08-04T23:20:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:55:46.490Z","description":"Does lower T lead to higher tech? 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