ArticleScientific reports2018
No evidence for the immunocompetence handicap hypothesis in male humans.
Article in Scientific reports, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A meta-analysis of the association between male dimorphism and fitness outcomes in humans.eLife · 2022Pooled it
- Measuring sexual dimorphism in human faces.Journal of anatomy · 2026Article
- Androgen receptor gene polymorphism and biological age markers in men.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Time perception of attractive male faces and voices: The role of women's menstrual cycle.PloS one · 2025Article
- Do lifestyle and hormonal variables explain links between health and facial attractiveness?Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Association between sex hormones and anti-S/RBD antibody responses to COVID-19 vaccines in healthcare workers.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2023Article
- The best of both worlds: no apparent trade-off between immunity and reproduction in two group-living African mole-rat species.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Article
- When he smiles: Attractiveness preferences for male faces expressing emotions.Evolutionary human sciences · 2023Article
- Lower testosterone levels are associated with higher risk of death in men.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2023Article
- When the clock ticks wrong with COVID-19.Clinical and translational medicine · 2022Review
- Attractive and healthy-looking male faces do not show higher immunoreactivity.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Hormones and Sex-Specific Medicine in Human Physiopathology.Biomolecules · 2022Review
- Facial and body sexual dimorphism are not interconnected in the Maasai.Journal of physiological anthropology · 2022Article
- Darwin Versus Wallace: Esthetic Evolution and Preferential Mate Choice.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Review
- An Evolutionary Perspective on Appearance Enhancement Behavior.Archives of sexual behavior · 2022Review
- Antibody Responsiveness to Influenza: What Drives It?Viruses · 2021Review
- Effects of Male Facial Masculinity on Perceived Attractiveness.Adaptive human behavior and physiology · 2021Article
- A Unifying Theory for Autism: The Pathogenetic Triad as a Theoretical Framework.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Article
- Facial attractiveness and preference of sexual dimorphism: A comparison across five populations.Evolutionary human sciences · 2021Article
- Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The observations that testosterone might be immunosuppressive, form the basis for the immunocompetence handicap hypothesis (ICHH). According to ICHH only high-quality individuals can maintain high levels of testosterone and afford the physiological cost of hormone-derived immunosuppression. The animal and human studies that attempted to support the ICHH by precisely defined impairment of immunity associated with high testosterone levels are inconclusive. Furthermore, human studies have used only selected immune functions and varying testosterone fractions. This is the first study examining the relationship between multiple innate and adaptive immunity and serum levels of free testosterone, total testosterone, DHT and DHEA in ninety-seven healthy men. Free testosterone and marginally DHT levels were positively correlated with the strength of the influenza post-vaccination response. Total testosterone and DHEA showed no immunomodulatory properties. Our findings did not support ICHH assumptions about immunosuppressive function of androgens. In the affluent society studied here, men with higher levels of free testosterone could afford to invest more in adaptive immunity. Since the hormone-immune relationship is complex and may depend on multiple factors, including access to food resources, androgens should be treated as immunomodulators rather than implicit immunosuppressants.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.