Did you know that your choice of career could be strongly influenced by your sex drive?
“Our results provide strong support for (sex) hormonal influences on interest in occupations,” said Adriene M. Beltz, a graduate student in psychology at Penn State University who co-authored the study.
They studied teenagers and young adults with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) — a genetic condition — and their siblings who do not have it, the journal Hormones and Behaviour reports.
People with CAH are exposed to more androgen — a type of male sex hormone — than is normal while in the uterus, according to a Penn State University statement.
Females with CAH are genetically female but their interests tend to be more similar to stereotypically male ones.
Researchers also found that career interests directly corresponded to the amount of androgen exposure the females with CAH experienced.
Females without CAH had less interest than males in engineering or surgery and more interest in careers focused on interacting with people, such as teaching.