Interaction of the (CAG)n polymorphism in the androgen receptor gene and oral con-traceptive use on moral judgement in women

Biological factors including genetic variation are contributors to differences in moral deci-sions. Recently, Gong et al. (2017) reported that female carriers of more shorter alleles of the functional (CAG)n polymorphism in the androgen receptor (AR) gene showed enhanced en-dorsement of harmful actions. We aimed to replicate and extend these findings. N = 155 healthy young adults of Western European/German origin were genotyped for the AR (CAG)n polymorphism and completed a set of moral dilemmas that are designed to allow an estimation of underlying utilitarian and deontological tendencies in addition to the tradition-al moral score. While AR (CAG)n genotype did not affect moral judgement in men, there were (CAG)n × endocrine status interactions in the female sample, particularly on deontolo-gy. Women using oral contraceptives who carried two short (CAG)n alleles had reduced lev-els of deontology compared to carriers of long (CAG)n alleles. Descriptively, the opposite pattern emerged for free cycling women. The findings underscore the importance of andro-genic function for moral judgement and highlight the modulatory role of exogenous steroids.