Does Testosterone Play a Role in Career Choice?

ABC News reports on a new study by researchers at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University which supposedly determined that women with higher testosterone levels “take more risks and are more likely to choose a finance career.” Testosterone levels made no difference in men’s career choices in the study. The sample size was 500 graduate students.
I know that hormones play a real role in our behavior–no matter our sex–but these kinds of studies worry me. It feels as if isolating only one factor like this, especially one so biologically-determined, underplays all of the other huge influences on how we choose careers, get educated, seek mentors, develop an identity, determine our own gifts etc. The socialization, for example, that we experience as a result of our socioeconomic class, seems like a far greater influence on whether we see ourselves as “fit” for a career in finance, than whether we have a slightly higher testosterone level.
Which is all to say–okay, do the hormonal studies, but don’t forget to couch them in the context of what I see as far more powerful social, economic, and psychological factors. Your thoughts?

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