"The myth of the Lehman Sisters? Sex, testosterone, and financial risk-taking"

Cordelia Fine, 4 September 2018, 4-6pm, ANU Centre for China in the World lecture Theatre

There is growing scientific interest in the role of testosterone in financial risk-taking – a topic of considerable public interest too, with complaints of there being ‘too much testosterone on Wall Street’. Both research and debate is often is grounded in an implicit model in which testosterone is presumed to be the proximal mechanism underlying the evolved masculine trait of risk-taking. This talk will identify a number of conceptual and empirical problems with the underlying assumptions of this model, and report preliminary findings from a meta-analytic study on testosterone and financial risk-taking.

Bio:

Cordelia Fine is a Professor in the History & Philosophy of Science programme at the University of Melbourne. Her second book, Delusions of Gender, was shortlisted for numerous awards, and named as a best non-fiction book of the year by the Washington Post and an Evening Standard book of the year.  Her latest book, Testosterone Rex, was the winner of the prestigious Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book prize 2017, and was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for political writing. 

Professor Fine is also the recipient of the 2018 Edinburgh Medal, a prestigious award that recognises scientists who have excelled in their field and contributed significantly to our understanding of humanity. She received the award for her work in challenging gender bias in science and for her contributions to public debates about gender equality.