Obama election affected men's hormones

DURHAM, N.C., Oct. 21 (UPI) -- On election night, young men who voted for Republican John McCain or Libertarian Robert Barr had a sharp drop in testosterone, U.S. researchers found.

Duke University neuroscientist Kevin LaBar and colleagues at the University of Michigan said that in contrast, men who voted for the winner, Democrat Barack Obama, had stable testosterone levels immediately after the outcome.

Female study participants showed no significant change in their testosterone levels before and after the returns came in, LaBar said. Young men who participated in the study would normally show a slight night-time drop in testosterone levels, but on election night, they showed a dramatic divergence -- the Obama voters' levels didn't fall as they should, and the McCain and Barr voters lost more than would have been expected, the study said.

"This is a pretty powerful result," LaBar said in a statement. "Voters are physiologically affected by having their candidate win or lose an election."

In a post-election questionnaire, the McCain and Barr backers were found to be significantly more unhappy, submissive, unpleasant and controlled than the Obama voters.

The findings, published in the journal PLOS On, mirror studies that found among men who participate directly in an interpersonal contest -- the winner gets a boost of testosterone, while the loser's testosterone drops.