This letter is in response to Dr. James Dabbs' study in The Daily Collegian Sept. 1, "Study: Testosterone ups party appetite." His study looked at two groups of fraternities, one that he labeled "rowdy," and the other "quiet." He concluded that "fraternity members who tested for high levels of the male hormone were likely to party more, smile less and perform worse academically than quiet fraternities."

The findings bring up several questions. For instance, how many fraternity members were found to have high levels of testosterone leading to these generalizations -- two, three or 20? The size of the sample makes a big difference regarding the reliability of the findings. The conclusion also seems to be that of biological determinism. Could it not be that being in a rowdy environment, compared to a quiet one, leads to higher levels of testosterone?

Our hypothesis is that if the quiet fraternity members were placed in a rowdy environment, and the rowdier fraternity members in a quiet environment, that a higher level of testosterone would be found in the so-called original quiet group compared to the original rowdy group. Will we find that "fraternity members in the original quiet group who tested for high levels of the male hormone in the rowdy environment are more likely to party more, smile less and perform worse academicallly than the rowdy fraternity that was in a quiet environment?"

Maybe, maybe not, but it's a good idea for an experiment. Half of the rowdy fraternity males are randomly assigned to the quiet fraternity and half of the quiet fraternity males assigned to the rowdy fraternity. Testosterone levels will be monitored for six months. Now, guess who will have higher testosterone levels? We put our scientific reputations on the original rowdy group males and the quiet group males who were assigned to the rowdy fraternity.

Let's stop the biological determination outmoded way of perceiving the world. Modern neurobiologists and first-year biobehavioral health program graduate students know that the environment has pervasive effects on biology, even on testosterone.

And by the way, testosterone is not a "male" hormone. Women have testosterone too. If you don't believe us, try measuring the testosterone levels of the rowdy women at Penn State.