Prenatal androgen effects on sex/gender differences in disgust and sociosexuality. A preregistered study

Women, on average, show greater levels of restricted sociosexuality, namely, less willingness to engage in sexual intercourse outside of committed relationships. This sex/gender difference is consistent across countries, and it is hypothesized that it might be at least partially explained by greater levels of pathogen disgust sensitivity, which may serve the function of avoiding diseases. However, it is unclear how to disentangle the possible biological contributions from cultural contributions when observing these differences. Congenital androgen hyperplasia (CAH) is a condition that leads to greater prenatal exposure of women to androgens, resulting in masculinization. In this study, we aim to compare whether a group of women with CAH differs from a group of men and women without CAH. We expect that women with CAH, as compared to women without CAH, will show lower levels of restricted sociosexuality and that this difference will be mediated by lower levels of pathogen disgust.