Hormones affect your career path
We are all ruled by our hormones at certain times of the month. But who'd have thought they can affect your career, too? When it comes to deciding your career of choice it appears that sex hormones can strongly influence people's interests, which in turn affects the kinds of occupations they choose. At least according to a recent psychological study quoted in the journal Hormones and Behaviour.
The researchers studied teenagers and young adults with the genetic condition congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), as well as their siblings who did not have it. While in the uterus, people with CAH are exposed to more androgen - a type of male sex hormone - than is normal.
Females with CAH are still genetically female, but their interests tend to be more similar to stereotypically male ones.
The researchers asked the participants to rate each item in a list of 64 occupations, according to whether they would like, dislike or were indifferent to doing that job. Females without CAH had less interest than males in occupations related to things, such as an engineer or surgeon, and more interest in careers focused on interacting with people, such as social worker or teacher.
There was, however, no significant difference reported between males with CAH and males without.
